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21543469 | London-based Mace will team up with British firm EC Harris to create the Kingdom Tower in Jeddah.
When finished, the structure will stand around 3,280 ft (1km) high, more than three times taller than the Shard.
It will be around 558ft (170m) higher than the current tallest building, the 2,717ft (828m) Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
Construction of the Kingdom Tower, which will overlook the Red Sea, is expected to cost around £780m and take more than five years to complete.
It will consist of a five-star hotel, apartments, office space and an observatory.
Mark Reynolds, chief executive of Mace, said: "Kingdom Tower is a project of international importance and immense ambition and we are delighted to be part of the joint venture team tasked with its delivery."
Keith Brooks, head of property and social infrastructure at EC Harris, said: "The Kingdom Tower is a landmark building that will clearly demonstrate Saudi Arabia's ambitions to the world."
The Jeddah Economic Company, which appointed the firms to the project, said it was the vision of Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. | The company that built London's Shard skyscraper has been chosen to oversee the construction of a tower in Saudi Arabia set to be the world's tallest. |
32618880 | An academic report said in February that at least 53 underage girls were abused in two towns in central Colombia.
US soldiers allegedly filmed the abuse and sold the tapes as pornography.
The Colombian Ombudsman said he had asked for an update on a US inquiry into the allegations.
The Colombian government welfare body, the ICBF, called for the girls and adolescents allegedly involved to be located and identified.
The allegations were published by a historian, Renan Vega, in a report on Colombia's long-running conflict between the government and FARC rebels .
It was part of a set of 12 reports on the conflict, by various historians, requested by negotiators at peace talks taking place in the Cuban capital, Havana.
Mr Vega alleges that the abuse happened in two towns, Melgar and Girardot in central Colombia near one of the country's largest military bases.
He also alleged that in Melgar, a US contractor and a US sergeant raped a 12-year-old girl in 2007.
The French news agency AFP quoted the US Embassy in Bogota as saying it "takes very seriously any allegation of sexual misconduct by one of its officials."
US military and contractors have been working in Colombia for more than a decade during a multi-billion-dollar military and diplomatic aid operation named "Plan Colombia" aimed at fighting drug trafficking and insurgencies. | Colombia says it will investigate accusations that US contractors and military staff sexually abused minors for four years from 2003. |
40030690 | Blues chief executive Richard Holland said the region has made the "unanimous decision" not to pursue the option.
Holland added "amicable discussions" had been held on how the WRU could assist the region during the potential redevelopment of Cardiff Arms Park.
"We will continue to explore the best way forward for the future of ... our region," he said in an open letter.
Earlier in May WRU chief executive Martyn Phillips said the governing body was in "embryonic" talks over the possibility of taking over the Blues.
Stadium redevelopment plans rest on Blues coming to an agreement over renewing their lease with Cardiff Athletic Club (Cac) that ends in January, 2022.
That agreement appears to be a step closer with a Cac spokesperson saying: "I can confirm that negotiations are ongoing and we hope to call an EGM [extraordinary general meeting] in the not too distant future.
"From a practical perspective this is unlikely to be in the next couple of weeks due to the Champions League Final (on 3 June) and the impact that it has on holding meetings etc."
Cac is a body made up of Cardiff tennis, bowls, hockey and cricket clubs which has a clubhouse at the Arms Park.
Blues boss Holland added: "With only five years remaining on the existing lease and the annual costs of maintaining the current facility escalating, the Cardiff Blues board are resolutely focused on extending the lease and redeveloping Cardiff Arms Park to provide a fit for purpose stadium for both Cardiff Rugby Football Club and Cardiff Blues.
"The history and heritage of Cardiff Rugby at Cardiff Arms Park is of paramount importance to the board and it is essential to protect all elements of this great club and its iconic home.
"We remain in ongoing negotiations with Cardiff Athletic Club regarding the granting of a new 150-year lease with development rights and are very hopeful of an agreement with the Cac management board."
The announcement came after a vote that paved the way for the WRU to take over Blues' rivals Newport Gwent Dragons.
Blues bosses have previously expressed a wish to redevelop their Arms Park home into a 15,000-capacity stadium.
The plans include a retractable pitch and sliding roof so the stadium can be used as a concert venue, as well as building an exhibition centre, a hotel and flats.
Holland also said in a statement he intends to explain "concept ideas" for the stadium revamp.
He said: "These concepts are purely an indication of what could be achieved, from the replacement of the North and South stands to a complete redevelopment of the entire site, with the playing of rugby being the priority." | The Welsh Rugby Union's proposed temporary takeover of Cardiff Blues has been called off. |
37881328 | The first half produced few clear-cut chances but Morecambe did go close when Paul Mullin was found by James Jennings, only to see his shot from eight yards well saved by Jamal Blackman in the Wycombe goal.
Pierre put the hosts ahead early in the second half, beating goalkeeper Barry Roche with a header from six yards out after meeting a Joe Jacobson free-kick.
Morecambe were denied a penalty in response when Matt Bloomfield appeared to handled in the box, but the referee gave a free kick which Michael Rose hit against the post.
And the Shrimps' hopes of a comeback were dashed when O'Nien nipped in front of his marker to head Paul Hayes' cross into the Morecambe goal with just nine minutes remaining.
Wycombe's first win in five league games moves them to 16th in the League Two table.
Report supplied by the Press Association.
Match ends, Wycombe Wanderers 2, Morecambe 0.
Second Half ends, Wycombe Wanderers 2, Morecambe 0.
Foul by Garry Thompson (Wycombe Wanderers).
Dean Winnard (Morecambe) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Attempt missed. Cole Stockton (Morecambe) right footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the left.
Paris Cowan-Hall (Wycombe Wanderers) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Michael Rose (Morecambe).
Foul by Michael Harriman (Wycombe Wanderers).
Cole Stockton (Morecambe) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Adebayo Akinfenwa (Wycombe Wanderers).
Aaron McGowan (Morecambe) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt saved. Luke O'Nien (Wycombe Wanderers) header from a difficult angle on the left is saved in the bottom left corner.
Paris Cowan-Hall (Wycombe Wanderers) hits the bar with a right footed shot from outside the box.
Corner, Wycombe Wanderers. Conceded by Aaron McGowan.
Substitution, Wycombe Wanderers. Garry Thompson replaces Paul Hayes.
Corner, Morecambe. Conceded by Michael Harriman.
Foul by Michael Harriman (Wycombe Wanderers).
Alex Whitmore (Morecambe) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Corner, Morecambe. Conceded by Marcus Bean.
Attempt blocked. Jack Dunn (Morecambe) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Goal! Wycombe Wanderers 2, Morecambe 0. Luke O'Nien (Wycombe Wanderers) header from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Paul Hayes with a cross.
Attempt blocked. Matt Bloomfield (Wycombe Wanderers) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Corner, Wycombe Wanderers. Conceded by Alex Whitmore.
Attempt missed. Matt Bloomfield (Wycombe Wanderers) right footed shot from the left side of the box is close, but misses to the left.
Foul by Paris Cowan-Hall (Wycombe Wanderers).
Ryan Edwards (Morecambe) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Attempt blocked. Luke O'Nien (Wycombe Wanderers) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Substitution, Morecambe. Lee Molyneux replaces Aaron Wildig.
Substitution, Morecambe. Jack Dunn replaces Paul Mullin.
Joe Jacobson (Wycombe Wanderers) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Foul by Joe Jacobson (Wycombe Wanderers).
Paul Mullin (Morecambe) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt saved. Paul Mullin (Morecambe) header from the right side of the box is saved in the top centre of the goal.
Foul by Matt Bloomfield (Wycombe Wanderers).
Michael Rose (Morecambe) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Joe Jacobson (Wycombe Wanderers) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Paul Mullin (Morecambe).
Foul by Paul Hayes (Wycombe Wanderers).
Alex Whitmore (Morecambe) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Paul Hayes (Wycombe Wanderers). | Luke O'Nien and Aaron Pierre scored second-half goals as Wycombe Wanderers picked up a welcome three points against Morecambe. |
23458957 | The blaze broke out in a block of flats in Campbell Street in the town at about 18:10 on Thursday.
Scottish Fire and Rescue Service were called to deal with the "large" fire following a lightning storm.
Torrential rain, thunder and lightning swept parts of the country, with a number of areas in Scotland placed on flood alert.
Following the fire in Greenock, about 20 people had to leave their homes.
They are being cared for at a nearby church hall. The Red Cross has sent an emergency vehicle to support those who are unable to return home.
Scottish Fire and Rescue said later that no one was injured but the building has been "severely damaged" by fire and heat from the blaze.
Firefighters were also dealing with flash floods in Greenock and elsewhere. They received numerous calls from other parts of the country.
Among the worst affected locations were parts of Glasgow and Ayrshire where rainfall was estimated at approximately 20mm.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) issued "be prepared" notices in several areas.
Forecaster Billy Payne, from Meteogroup, said: "The rain band is moving north and breaking up with heavy thundery showers across southern and central Scotland. There have been a few lightning strikes in the Glasgow area and 20mm of rain has fallen locally since daylight began."
The rainstorms follow a three week heat wave during which some of the hottest temperatures for years have been recorded.
As a result of the deteriorating conditions, road maintenance firm BEAR Scotland has postponed resurfacing works on the southbound M9.
Work was due to take place at the weekend but has been shelved due to forecasts for further rain.
The work on the stretch between junction 9 (Bannockburn) and junction 8 (Hill of Kinnaird) will be carried out at a later date.
Scottish Power said "pockets of customers" are without power in the Musselburgh and Tranent areas.
Some flooding was reported in the Borders, at Eyemouth and Kelso.
In Glasgow, the newly-refurbished Tollcross International Swimming Centre was forced shut because of problems with the building's rainwater system.
The centre will host swimming events during next summer's Commonwealth Games.
A spokesman for operators Glasgow Life said: "Tollcross International Swimming Centre has been forced to close as a result of today's adverse weather conditions and an issue with the building's rainwater system.
"Glasgow Life is working with architects and contractors to rectify this and the facility will reopen as soon as possible. We apologise for any disruption to customers." | A lightning strike is thought to have caused a house fire in Greenock, Renfrewshire. |
25575083 | Madison Lambe, of Boston, Lincolnshire, took the snaps during a visit to Sandringham on Christmas Day to watch the Royal Family walk to church.
Following the service the Duke of Cambridge came over to her and when asked for a photo he replied "you can't beat a good selfie on Christmas Day".
"He didn't seem bothered that I asked him, he was really nice," said Madison.
"It was sort of a dare from my mum to ask the Queen or him for a photo," added Madison, a pupil at Boston High School.
"I took down some flowers and there were a lot of other children there. When William got down to where I was stood I asked him if I could have a picture and he said 'yes'.
"Then he said 'right, you can't beat a good selfie on Christmas Day'.
"I didn't really expect it. It was a really good experience."
The prince posed for two photos with Madison, appearing to pout slightly in the second.
Last month Prince Charles posed for a selfie with a boy during a visit to Stevenage, Hertfordshire. | A 12-year-old schoolgirl who posed for "selfie" photos with Prince William says it was a dare from her mum. |
36478057 | Disney Magic is among more than 644 cruise ships visiting Scotland this year.
The visits are expected to bring a record 525,000 cruise passengers to the country, according to Cruise Scotland.
Last year, Scottish ports welcomed 460,546 visitors and 501 cruise ships.
Passengers on Disney Magic are expected to make visits to Inverness and Loch Ness before later continuing their cruise. | A Disney holiday cruise ship has arrived at Invergordon in the Cromarty Firth as part of the vessel's first round-Britain voyage. |
29679101 | It is hoped the scheme, run by charity Mind with funding from Sport England, will help 75,000 people.
They will be offered help to join sports clubs, take up a new activity or go to the gym as part of the project.
It will be launched in eight areas of England next year, with £1.5m of National Lottery funding from Sport England and £514,000 raised by Mind.
Mind chief executive Paul Farmer said physical activity could play a "key role" in recovery from mental health issues like anxiety and depression and in staying well in the long term.
"However, mental ill-health in itself can create significant obstacles that prevent people from taking up sport in the first place," he added.
"Feelings of low self-confidence, exhaustion or fear of crowded spaces can seem insurmountable when facing a mental health problem."
Grassroots sports body Sport England will help provide "bespoke sports programmes" that will help thousands of people "access sport as part of their recovery and ongoing health", said Mr Farmer.
Sports coaches taking part on the scheme will receive training to understand the issues faced by those with mental health problems.
The target is for 25,000 people to be helped in the first 15 months of the project.
Jack Holloway, who has experienced depression, told BBC Radio 5 live that taking up running had been hugely beneficial but the idea "wasn't even on the radar" when he received counselling.
However, he said there was a danger of doctors recommending exercise as a fall-back option "if they have nothing else to offer".
There was no reason sport "shouldn't be the third prong or the second prong" of a comprehensive counselling approach, he added.
Sport England's director of community sport Mike Diaper said sport "has the power to improve lives".
He said: "There is compelling evidence that participation in sport and physical activity has a positive influence on mental wellbeing and mental illness.
"This includes enhancing day-to-day moods, reducing the impact of stress and enhancing self-esteem.
"That's why Sport England is committing National Lottery funding to this exciting and ground-breaking programme."
The project will also see support groups and taster sessions set up to help people make sport a part of their lives.
Participants will join the sports and mental health scheme through their local branch of Mind.
Sports Minister Helen Grant said: "This programme from Sport England and Mind will help people struggling with mental health problems use sport as a release and help put them on the road to recovery." | A £2m programme using sport to improve the lives of people with mental health problems has been announced. |
35038920 | A mother was in the B&M store at Aberdeen's Kittybrewster retail park with her child when the incident happened on Saturday afternoon.
She sought staff help for the 14-month-old and between them the baby's hands were loosened from the trolley.
It was found that other trolleys had been targeted at the front of the shop.
Store manager Dave Farquharson said an investigation had been launched to track down the culprits, including reviewing CCTV footage.
He said: "I really don't understand the mindset of individuals who would have thought it would have been a prank." | An investigation has been launched after a baby's hands got stuck on a shop trolley which had been smeared with fast-setting glue. |
39836318 | Media playback is not supported on this device
Rhys Marshall opened the scoring for Glenavon before Jude Winchester and Chris Curran turned it around.
Greg Moorhouse headed the away side level only for Jay Donnelly to head Tommy Breslin's team 3-2 up.
James Singleton, James Gray and Andy McGrory scored after the break to secure a thrilling victory for Gary Hamilton's side.
A frantic tone was set early on when Marshall headed Glenavon into the lead after three minutes when he rose highest to meet Joel Cooper's corner.
The Reds responded strongly, however, first through Winchester's long-range strike, which levelled the score before Curran's excellent solo effort turned the game on its head.
Cliftonville conceded again when Moorhouse headed in from close-range to make it 2-2.
Two minutes later, Donnelly produced a fine header of his own to give the Reds a slender advantage going into the break.
Glenavon's game-plan was to bombard Cliftonville with crosses and it proved effective as Singleton made it 3-3 with a header, once again from a Cooper corner.
From then, the away side dominated and were duly rewarded, Gray scoring a close-range header to put the Mourneview Park outfit in the driving seat.
McGrory wrapped up a thrilling win from the penalty spot after a foul on Mark Sykes. | Glenavon set up a Europa League play-off final with Ballymena United after beating Cliftonville 5-3 at Solitude. |
35349619 | Japan's official map-making body said foreigners might mistake it for a Nazi symbol, and that temples should be represented by a three-storey pagoda instead.
It is one of six map symbols the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI) has proposed dropping, as Japan prepares for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The GSI came up with the suggestions after speaking to experts and surveying more than 1,000 people, including tourists, embassy officials and foreign students.
It is conducting a public consultation before making an official decision, but some people in Japan are not happy.
Many say the ancient Sanskrit symbol - which has been adopted into Japanese where it is pronounced manji - has long been associated with Buddhism and Japanese culture, and that the tourists should learn this.
In this tweet, Twitter user Fei Explorer linked to a news article on the change and asked rhetorically: "So if terrorists hang up the Union Jack, does this mean the UK should change its flag? Or the USA or Australia?"
Another Twitter user, Konosaki Lem, said: "It's said some would mistake the manji for the Nazi symbol, but Buddhism has a much longer history with this symbol. So I strongly oppose changing our maps for some foreigners who are ignorant and extremely stupid. The idea is foolish."
GSI's executive officer for national mapping, Takayuki Nakamura, acknowledged the controversy, but said some people wanted to go even further.
He told the Japan Times: "Some say we should change symbols for Japanese-language maps at this opportunity, while others say the traditional symbols should stay. Either way, it will take a while before any changes are made, as we need to co-ordinate with related government agencies."
Other symbols that will be changed for foreigners maps include that for a hotel, which GSI admitted looked like the symbol for helipads.
The church symbol could be mistaken for a graveyard, added the agency.
Meanwhile, some respondents to the GSI survey thought the symbol for a hospital looked too much like a shield.
Then there were uniquely Japanese symbols that baffled some, such as that for post offices. The symbol is derived from an old Japanese term dating back to the 19th Century meaning "communication".
The giant X symbol for police station actually represents two police batons crossing each other, but also confused many. It would be replaced by a saluting policeman.
The rest of the 18 symbols are either new ones that will be used exclusively for foreign-language maps to denote places like public bathrooms or restaurants, or existing ones that will be used for both Japanese and foreign maps.
The symbol for hot springs will remain as it is, much to the amusement of some who have pointed out that it looks like another quintessential Japanese icon - a steaming bowl of miso soup.
Reporting by Tessa Wong. | A Japanese proposal to stop using swastikas to identify temples on tourist maps has sparked a backlash. |
30146277 | The government sets a quarterly target for hospitals to see 95% of emergency cases within four hours.
A&E waits have been below that level since the end of September.
The Department of Health says it recently announced extra support for A&E teams.
And officials say there is rising demand for emergency services, with more than a million extra visits to A&E last year when compared to 2010.
A Department of Health spokesman said: "The NHS is performing well despite unprecedented demand and hospitals continue to treat the vast majority of people quickly, with around 2,000 more people every day seen within the four-hour target in A&E last year compared to 2010.
"Last week we announced extra support to keep services sustainable year-round and in the long-term, we want to reduce demand by looking after people in the community."
Andy Burnham MP, Labour's shadow health secretary, said: "After a week of worrying reports about full A&E departments, it is clear hospitals in all parts of England are struggling to cope.
"Labour has repeatedly warned David Cameron and Jeremy Hunt about the danger of ignoring the warning signs.
"They have ignored the problem for far too long and now it is threatening to drag down the NHS this winter."
The standard recommends patients should be seen and then admitted to hospital or discharged within four hours of arrival in A&E. | Accident and emergency departments in England saw 92.9% of patients within four hours last week - the lowest percentage since April 2013, NHS data shows. |
34707157 | In a lawsuit, the family has alleged Integrated Whale Media Investments (IWM) breached its purchase agreement and failed to make payments on time.
IWM borrowed money from Forbes to finance the deal, the family added.
However, IWM has rejected the allegations and told the BBC they are "completely without merit".
The Hong Kong-based investment holding company is registered in the British Virgin Islands, while the Forbes family's lawsuit has been filed the US state of Delaware.
Forbes Media publishes Forbes magazine and reaches about 80 million people a month through its various outlets in print, digital and television.
Forbes Media was owned by the Forbes family for 97 years until the family sold a controlling stake to IWM for an undisclosed amount in July 2014. It had been looking for a buyer since November 2013.
But the Forbes family claims the investment firm has "wasted" corporate assets and abused its position as the controlling shareholder of Forbes Media.
"From the outset of the supposed partnership, Integrated Whale and its principals have steadfastly refused to pay what they clearly owe, and instead have made a series of baseless - and often patently false - excuses and pretexts for their refusal to honour their basic contractual commitments," the family said in the lawsuit filed last week.
IWM has said the lawsuit is a dispute between shareholders and does not have any impact on the media firm's daily operations and future growth.
"Forbes Media is managed by a team of media professionals, and IWM has built a good and trusted working relationship with this management team." | The family behind Forbes Media is suing its Hong Kong investors for an alleged breach of payment on the stake they bought in the media firm last year. |
35454069 | Another boy, 12, was attacked by two youths shortly after getting off a bus near Angerstein Road in North End on Tuesday.
One boy punched him in the stomach while the other pulled him to the ground in a headlock. They then stole his iPhone 4.
Hampshire Constabulary said a boy was arrested on Saturday on suspicion of robbery and released on bail.
"The investigation is ongoing and we are continuing to appeal to identify the other boy," a spokesman said.
The victim was "understandably" left "very shaken" by the attack, he added. | A 10-year-old boy has been arrested following a robbery in Portsmouth. |
36366647 | Tunisian officials urged the UK government to relax its travel guidance, put in place after 31 British holidaymakers were killed in two attacks last year.
The number of UK visitors has since fallen by 90%.
With the current warning in place, most travel insurance policies will be invalid for those planning to visit the country.
James Merriman returned from a four-night trip to Tunisia on Friday. He travelled by himself across the country and says he felt completely safe.
"There were a few police roadblocks, but I never felt threatened or concerned for my safety," he says.
"The lack of tourists was certainly noticeable throughout my visit to the different parts of the country.
"There were a few Russian tourists and a handful of Chinese tourists, but I didn't meet any other English people.
"The local people are a real credit to their nation.
"They were so happy to have met an English tourist and kept apologising to me personally for the terrible events of last year.
"I do sincerely hope the Foreign Office does relax its advice warning against all but essential travel to Tunisia.
"My trip was wonderful, and I would recommend anyone to give it a try and enjoy this marvellous country."
Matt Sullivan is from the UK, but has been living in Sousse since September 2015, with his wife and three children.
He says the downturn in tourism has had a big impact on Tunisia's economy.
"I have seen local people suffer because of the massive drop in tourism," he says.
"It's affecting everyone in our city: I meet people who have lost jobs because of this, nearly every day.
"There's no negativity towards the British government for its travel advice, but I think it would be justified for them to feel angry.
"In my experience, tourists understand the travel advice as pretty much meaning that you cannot come here.
"Most people assume that they will not be covered by travel insurance.
"Hardly anyone actually realises that, with a bit of shopping around, you can find insurance that covers you in Tunisia."
"Tourists who do come here tell me that they feel very safe and looked after.
"The police presence has been noticeably stepped up, and reported arrests of terrorists have gone from very little to frequent over the last year.
"I certainly feel completely safe living here with my family.
"It seems to me that the government's travel advice system is not up to the particular threat of terrorism.
"The travel advice effectively stops people from being able to come to Tunisia, but what we need is to give people appropriate information and allow them to make informed choices.
"Otherwise, we are letting terrorists win.
"A very tiny number of people have been able to seriously hurt this country's economy.
"And the British people have virtually no choice to stand against the terrorists and with the people of Tunisia."
Jane Dutton has been going to Tunisia for over 20 years.
She has continued to travel there against the Foreign Office's advice, but while she used to visit up to six times per year, she now goes less frequently because of concerns about insurance for her children.
"I have been going with friends, but obviously I have not been taking my three children.
"This is purely because of insurance reasons: if I slip and break my leg, I get on a plane to come home and deal with it at a hospital in the UK, but it would be irresponsible of me to expect one of my children to board an aircraft whilst unwell.
"Tunisia is a fantastic country with the nicest people I have ever met in my entire life.
Three generations of Tunisian tourism
Tunisia urges UK to relax travel advice
Industry is dead, says tour guide
"It was heartbreaking when I went there in November and only 30 people were staying at a hotel with a capacity for 1,500.
"The [entertainment] team still worked, and the restaurant was open.
"I keep in touch with the staff and feel sorry for them.
"Currently, I'm going on holiday with my children to other places, and - as lovely as they are and as nice as the people are - I feel no loyalty to these other hotels or their members of staff.
"Nowhere else in the world has got my heart like Tunisia."
James Callaghan does not think it is a good idea to travel to Tunisia at the moment.
He has just come back from Lanzarote and is planning visits to Spain and Greece later this year.
"I wouldn't go to Tunisia even if the government's travel advice was relaxed," he says.
"In fact, I feel the whole of the Middle East is 'out of bounds' now and will be for some time.
"It's a shame, but why take the risk?
"There are plenty of other places to holiday.
"Nowhere is completely safe, but you have to weigh the odds even if the risk in Tunisia is small.
"I'd feel very unrelaxed in any of the North African holiday destinations, including on the flights to and from.
"That's not what holidays are about."
Lisa's husband is Tunisian, and they have not travelled to his home country since last year.
She says she would definitely go there if the guidance was changed.
"I know lots of people that still travel, but with a child I would prefer to have insurance in place," she says.
"This makes family life difficult: we missed a wedding in Tunisia and my husband missed his brother's engagement last month.
"One of his cousins works in hotels and has not been working a lot of the time.
"The downturn also has a knock-on effect on shops and other businesses.
"If tourism doesn't pick up soon, the unemployed men will be easy pickings for extremist recruiters.
"Tunisia is such a lovely country, and the people are friendly and welcoming.
"It is a shame to see how this whole country is suffering because of the acts of a few.
"It is safer in Tunisia than a lot of other tourist destinations, but this is the only country with the Foreign Office advice against going.
"Let people make up their own minds."
Compiled by Michael Ertl | British holidaymakers have told the BBC why they are still visiting Tunisia, despite the UK government warning against all but essential travel to the country. |
35681240 | Ashley Guindon had been responding to a domestic dispute in Woodbridge, Virginia, about 32 km (20 miles) south of Washington, DC.
Two of her colleagues were also injured in the shooting and are in hospital, but no details have been released about their condition.
The suspect, a military serviceman, was unharmed and is now in police custody.
The suspect killed his wife then opened fire on officers as they approached, a police official told the AP news agency.
There was also a child in the house at the time of the incident, he said.
Guindon had been a county police officer previously, the Associated Press reported, but Saturday was her first day back on shift in her new role.
"It is with profound sadness that we announce that Prince William County Police Officer Ashley Guindon, one of the officers involved in this evening's shooting on Lashmere Ct, has died as a result of her injuries sustained during the incident," her department said in a statement on Saturday.
Prince William County Police had earlier tweeted a picture of Guindon following her inauguration on Friday, urging her and another new colleague to "be safe". | A US police officer has been shot and killed on her first day at work, the day after she was sworn in. |
40144753 | Inter have been without a permanent manager since the dismissal of Stefano Piolo on 9 May.
Inter and Spalletti verbally confirmed a two-year deal today in Florence and the contract will be signed at the beginning of next week.
Spalletti, 58, finished second with Roma this season in Serie A but left on 30 May after 16 months in charge.
Inter's ambitious Chinese owners, the Suning Group, are keen to restore the club's fortunes after a seventh-place finish in Serie A this season.
If Spalletti is appointed, one of his first tasks will be to resolve the future of Croatia winger Ivan Perisic.
Manchester United have spoken to Inter about the £45m-rated player but no deal has been agreed.
Perisic scored 11 goals in 36 league appearances for Inter during a troubled campaign, which included the departure of Roberto Mancini during pre-season. Mancini's successor, Frank de Boer lasted only 85 days before he was dismissed. | Inter Milan are expected to name Luciano Spalletti as their new coach next week. |
18247659 | The magnitude 5.8 quake hit the Emilia Romagna region, damaging buildings and causing panic among residents living in tents after the earthquake on 20 May.
That quake killed seven people and caused significant damage to the region's cultural heritage.
The number of people made homeless has now gone up from 6,000 to 14,000, the Italian government says.
At least seven people are missing, and there are fears that a number of others may be buried under the rubble.
Prime Minister Mario Monti said his government would "do everything we must do and is possible to do in the shortest possible time to guarantee a return to normal life in this area, that is so special, so important, so productive for Italy".
Government troops have been sent to the affected areas, and an emergency cabinet meeting will be held on Wednesday.
Tuesday's quake struck 40km (25 miles) north of Bologna at a depth of 9.6km (six miles) at about 09:03 local time (07:03 GMT).
Thousands of residents ran out of buildings after the tremor, which was felt as far away as Venice and the Austrian border.
The towns of Mirandola, Medolla and Cavezzo were closest to the epicentre, but the northern cities of Milan and Bologna were shaken too.
Among the dead were four people in Mirandola, including two who were in a factory that collapsed. Three people also died in San Felice, and two in Cavezzo.
In Mirandola, the San Francis church collapsed, leaving only its facade standing.
Three people were killed at a factory that had only been cleared for re-entry on Monday, following the 20 May quake, the Corriere della Sera news website says.
By Dany MitzmanCrevalcore
Crevalcore is a very small town with a historic centre which is completely blocked off. Some buildings have huge cracks, one chimney top is skewed on a roof.
Many buildings have staircases coming away from the walls.
People are hanging around in the streets, waiting to find out if they can go back into their homes.
I walked past an old people's home and everyone was in the garden.
People are absolutely terrified. Many have been unable to sleep properly since the first quake and are worried about losing their homes.
A train with 450 beds on board has been brought in for people to sleep in overnight because the buildings really aren't accessible.
The schools opened this morning, but the teachers evacuated them immediately. The walls were shaking - which was terrifying for the children.
Quiet terror of earthquake victims
A parish priest in the town of Rovereto di Novi is reported to have been killed by a falling beam when he went back into his church to save a Madonna statue.
"It's a disaster, I've never seen anything like it," Cavezzo Mayor Stefano Draghetti was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Christopher Gilbert, a Londoner living in Modena, said he felt "a rolling earthquake lasting around 15 seconds - people were quite frightened".
"I was having a coffee when the quake struck and felt a swaying motion so I clutched onto a bar in the cafe to steady myself. Schools and offices were evacuated," he told the BBC.
Chris Brewerton, living in Mantua, told the BBC that Tuesday's quake appeared stronger than the one on 20 May, which was 6.0 in magnitude. Mantua is 58km (36 miles) north of Modena.
"The chair starts shaking and there's a feeling of waves below me," he said. "I rush out into the garden; the shutters and garage door are banging, the ground below me swaying."
There were several aftershocks since, including a large one at about midday which sent people out into the streets in cities up to 100km away, the BBC's Mark Duff reports from northern Italy.
In Pisa, offices were evacuated as a precautionary measure while there were moments of panic in Venice, where a statue fell to the ground.
Pictures from the worst-affected areas show factories and office blocks reduced to rubble.
Firemen with dogs are now trawling through what remains of the buildings for survivors.
Calls to emergency services have overloaded the telephone network in some areas, causing a system blackout. Train services have been halted in some parts of northern Italy.
Emilia Romagna - one of Italy's most agriculturally productive areas famous for many delicacies - has been struggling to recover from the previous quake.
Reports say that Tuesday's tremor dealt a blow to the region's world-famous balsamic vinegar industry - after the previous quake nine days ago hit Parmesan production.
A friendly match between Italy and Luxembourg ahead of the Euro 2012 football championships, due to be played in the northern city of Parma on Tuesday, has been called off.
The 20 May quake destroyed many centuries-old buildings of cultural value. It was the worst to hit Italy since the L'Aquila tremor that killed nearly 300 people in 2009. | A new earthquake has struck northern Italy, killing at least 16 people and injuring 200 others, officials say. |
38928776 | Revenues rose 13.1% to 51.2bn euros (£43.6bn) last year, slightly ahead of expectations, while net income jumped by nearly 20% to 3.54bn euros.
Earlier this week, Renault said it had sold 3.2 million vehicles last year, a 13.4% rise on 2015, with market share rising in all regions.
The firm's sales have now overtaken French rival Peugeot Citroen.
Renault's financial director Clotilde Delbos said 2016 had been "a very good year" for the carmaker, and the company had hit all of its targets.
"These objectives, in particular that of exceeding 50bn euros in sales, have been achieved by 2016," she told a news conference.
She added that the results had been achieved despite markets such as Brazil and Russia that "count a lot for us and which were strong in the past" but were still at "lower levels than in the past".
Renault said it expected the global car market to grow by between 1.5% and 2% next year, with sales in Europe and France up 2%.
It forecasts the markets in Brazil and Russia will be "stable", but expects 5% growth in China and the Indian market to expand by 8%.
Last month, French authorities said they would investigate Renault over suspected "cheating" in diesel emissions tests.
The Paris prosecutors office is to conduct a probe into "cheating on key parts" of vehicles and into the quality of the tests.
The move comes in response to concerns raised last year by the French consumer protection agency, which carried out an investigation into several carmakers in the wake of the Volkswagen scandal. | French carmaker Renault has reported record annual revenues after a revamp of its range boosted sales. |
32064305 | The 2 Sisters chicken processing factory in Llangefni is consulting staff on plans to cut a whole shift of workers, affecting 300 jobs.
Dr Alexandra Plows from Bangor University said it would be difficult for workers to find new employment.
The consultation period on the job losses comes to an end on 6 April.
Speaking on Radio Cymru's current affairs programme Manylu Dr Plows, a researcher at the university's school of social sciences, said: "We've faced a serious situation for a long time - like a slow motion car crash.
"There's a gap in the employment market, particularly with big employers. We've seen other major employers like Peboc, the Gaerwen abattoir and Anglesey Aluminium close."
Unite union representative Paddy McNought said: "Even with the agency workers we've estimated that about 50% of them live locally so you're talking about 200 who live locally losing their jobs."
2 Sisters said it would be inappropriate for them to make any comment about the future of the factory - and the possible job losses - during the consultation period. | The possible loss of hundreds of jobs from an Anglesey factory will be a huge blow to the island's economy, an academic warns. |
33320393 | Starting on 27 November, the final Test of their three-match series will be under lights in Adelaide, with a pink ball and both teams wearing whites.
Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said he hoped the idea would increase interest in the game.
The New Zealand Cricket Players' Association said its members were "nervous" about the experiment.
NZCPA chief executive Heath Mills indicated concerns about the difficulties of playing Test cricket under varying light and of dealing with the pink ball.
He said: "It's uncharted territory and because of that there will be uncertainty and apprehension."
Mills added that, despite their reservations, the players could see the "greater good it brings to all levels of the game".
The pink ball is designed to be visible under floodlights, while still allowing players to wear traditional whites.
Cricket Australia has carried out tests during domestic competitions in an attempt to allay concerns that the ball behaves differently to its red equivalent.
New Zealand Cricket agreed to the day-night match as part of a lucrative financial package secured by arranging their first Test series against Australia since 2011.
Sutherland said: "One of the global challenges with Test cricket is that most of the matches outside holiday periods are played on weekdays, in the middle of the day when people are at work and kids are at school.
"By shifting the playing times, each day's play can go into the evening and allow people to come in after work or after school to attend the last few hours of play."
He added it would also allow people "in other parts of the world or other parts of the country" to watch more television coverage of the match.
As part of the break with tradition, the intervals between sessions - traditionally lunch and tea - will be renamed tea and dinner. | Australia and New Zealand will meet in cricket's first day-night Test match later this year. |
40640810 | It is already illegal to sell knives to under-18s, but young people have been able to buy them online, according to the home secretary.
New measures would prohibit blades from being delivered to a private property.
Instead, customers would have to collect it from a physical shop, where retailers would check their identity.
Under current law, it is illegal to sell a blade of more than three inches (7.62cm) to anyone under 18 - but reports have warned online age verification checks can be sidestepped. In Scotland, 16 to 18-year-olds are allowed to buy cutlery and kitchen knives.
The courts dealt with more than 19,000 knife possession cases in England and Wales last year - the highest number since 2011.
"At the moment you have to do it by the click of a button.
"What we are proposing is that if you want to buy a knife online it has to be collected from a place where you have to show your ID," Home Secretary Amber Rudd explained.
"We have evidence that young people have been able to buy knives without verifying their ID and I want to stop that."
Calls to review online sales intensified after the fatal stabbing of Aberdeen schoolboy Bailey Gwynne in 2015.
The teenage killer, who was jailed for nine years, had bought the knife online.
An inquiry that followed the case recommended "further legislative controls on the purchase of weapons online".
Ms Rudd said almost three-quarters of online retailers which should carry out age verification checks were not doing so.
One under-18 was able to get a knife by having it delivered to their mother's shed, the home secretary added.
Ministers also want to give police in England and Wales powers to seize banned knives.
By banning the possession of outlawed weapons - such as "zombie knives" and knuckledusters - on private property, officers would be able to seize them and make arrests.
Ms Rudd said this would help begin to "break that cycle of danger and violence that's so blighting communities".
Those who keep weapons for legitimate purposes, such as cultural items or antiques, would not be penalised.
The proposals will be considered as part of a consultation to be launched later this year. | Online shoppers buying knives could be forced to collect them in person in England and Wales, if plans to stop children purchasing blades go ahead. |
36997351 | Nine free spaces have been added at Denbigh's Factory Ward car park and from 1 September all charges will change to long stay rates.
Vale Street car park will have a new subsidised rate of £1 for two hours.
Denbighshire council said it had listened to businesses' concerns about increases in charges. | The price of parking at two Denbighshire car parks will be slashed to support businesses in the area. |
35132030 | Media playback is not supported on this device
The 2012 team dressage gold medallist won the freestyle dressage title at the London International Horse Show.
"Last year I competed there and came fifth and it was quite a difficult ride, but it was totally different this year," Hester told BBC Radio Guernsey.
"It's fairly unbelievable that he's come this far and he looks like an Olympic prospect."
Hester beat Olympic individual dressage gold medallist and stable mate Charlotte Dujardin to the title at Olympia, and says the pair are hoping they will be selected for the 2016 Olympics.
"He (Nip Tuck) was fifth at the European Championships this year and we won the team silver, so we're definitely in the running for Rio," added Hester.
"So far Charlotte and I are in the top 10 at the moment in the world rankings.
"But with horses you have to be aware that they have to fit on the day, they have to have no problems and be fully up to the job, because it's a very big ask - flying horses to Rio and then the competition ahead of them." | Carl Hester says he and his horse Nip Tuck are capable of doing well at next summer's Olympics in Rio. |
38717486 | He has joined as an overseas signing, rather than on a Kolpak deal.
The 34-year-old will play in the County Championship and One-Day Cup games and then is expected to be included in the South Africa squad to face England in their four-Test series this summer.
Cook has played nine Tests for his country after his debut against England in January 2016, when he hit a century.
"Ever since I was a young boy, watching my dad (Jimmy Cook) play for Somerset, I always dreamed of one day playing county cricket," he said.
"Now in linking up with Durham I am getting to live out that dream."
Durham were relegated from Division One of the County Championship over financial issues last season and will start the campaign with a 48-point deduction. | Durham have signed South Africa batsman Stephen Cook for the first half of the 2017 season. |
35674675 | Two Eunan Walsh goals helped St Ronan's lead 2-4 to 0-8 at half-time but an Aaron Boyle fisted goal contributed to St Paul's taking control.
Maghera have the chance to win a third title in four years after they beat St Pat's Dungannon 2-10 to 1-11 on Friday.
Conor Glass and Shane McGuigan scored Maghera's first-half goals.
Academy of Dungannon made a great start and scored 1-3 in the first 11 minutes, Cormac O'Hagan netting a penalty after he was fouled by Patrick Turner.
Glass and McGuigan scored 1-1 and 1-3 respectively to help St Pat's to a 2-4 to 1-6 interval lead.
St Pat's, winners in 2013 and 2014, went on to secure a two-point victory.
They can thank keeper Sean O Caiside who made a great late save to deny Dungannon captain Liam Rafferty a crucial goal.
There were ugly scenes at the end of the game in Loup when players from both teams got involved in fighting. | St Paul's Bessbrook set up a MacRory Cup Final against St Pat's Maghera on St Patrick's Day by beating St Ronan's Lurgan 1-17 to 2-6 on Saturday. |
37400372 | The government has launched a review of school governance, aiming to "empower" teachers to make their own decisions.
Mr Swinney told the BBC there could be "further financial flexibility devolved to individual schools" which formerly would have lain with councils.
Some council leaders have voiced fears about their role being reduced.
The consultation will run into January 2017, and will be the basis for specific proposals drawn up by the government.
Speaking on the Sunday Politics Scotland programme, Mr Swinney said it was "entirely conceivable" that some power could transfer from councils to head teachers.
He said: "There may be some decisions that are taken by local authorities that would be taken by schools instead.
"So for example, if further financial flexibility is devolved to individual schools, and they are able to take decisions about the way resources are used within schools, then conceivably some of these decisions would have been taken by local authorities in the past.
"That's entirely conceivable that that's what could happen, because it would give the schools the ability to take decisions that relate directly to the educational opportunities of young people in Scotland.
"But I've made it also clear that I want local authorities to retain democratic control over education services within Scotland, but that I want to encourage a much greater degree of co-operation between local authorities in how they use their services to add value to the educational experience of young people at a local level."
Asked if this would "erode" democratic accountability of schools to councils, Mr Swinney said there needed to be a debate about decision-making in the education system.
He said: "There has to be democratic accountability in all aspects of our public services, and part of our consultation is exploring how we can take that forward to ensure that we have that necessary relationship of accountability.
"Fundamentally, the question that the consultation is asking is how can we best structure Scottish education that ensures the key educational relationship, between teachers and pupils, is enhanced and supported by the intervention of other bodies and institutions.
"I believe it's in the best interests of the educational journey of young people if decisions about those young people are taken as close to them as possible within schools.
"So I want to open up a debate about what are the right issues and questions and decisions that should be taken close to young people ins schools, and what should be taken at another level."
Teaching leaders have cautiously welcomed Mr Swinney's review, but warned against compromising local democratic accountability.
Larry Flanagan, of the Educational Institute of Scotland, the country's largest teaching union, said the Scottish model was superior to the "disasters" taking place in the rest of the UK.
When the review was announced, he said: "The Scottish government has made clear that it does not intend to take schools out of local authority control nor does it intend to mimic the disasters of UK policy in terms of academies or free schools. That is to be welcomed.
"In Scotland, there remains a widely-shared continuing commitment to the core ethos of our highly inclusive system of comprehensive education.
"At a time when the UK government seems determined to embed division - largely based around socio-economic factors - within its school system, it is important that we take a different approach here in Scotland."
The Scottish Conservatives have welcomed the idea of schools having more power, but warned that this "must not be a Trojan Horse for yet more centralisation".
Education spokeswoman Liz Smith said: "We have been calling on the Scottish government for years to drive more control and power down to schools.
"If this is what is going to happen under this review, then that is to be welcomed. But as ever with this SNP government, it will need to be watched carefully to make sure it delivers on its promises." | The Scottish government may seek to give funding directly to schools rather than via local authorities, Education Secretary John Swinney has said. |
36258515 | The study found the "moderately" overweight now had lower rates of early death than those who were normal weight, underweight or obese.
The work, published in JAMA, looked at many thousands of people's height, weight and death rates at three different time periods since the 1970s.
A UK doctor said it did not mean being overweight was healthy or desirable.
And advice about preventing obesity should remain.
A person's body mass index (BMI) is calculated by dividing their weight in kilograms by the square of their height in meters.
In the mid-1970s, those with the lowest death rates were a normal weight and the obese faced a 30% higher risk of early death, the doctors, from Copenhagen University, found.
But now the threat to people's survival from being obese was now almost negligible
The authors say the most likely explanation is that health systems are now much better at treating obesity-linked conditions, such as high cholesterol and blood pressure.
Lead investigator Prof Borge Nordestgaard said: "Our results should not be interpreted as suggesting that now people can eat as much as they like, or that so-called normal-weight individuals should eat more to become overweight.
"That said, maybe overweight people need not be quite as worried about their weight as before."
The Danish researchers say their work shows a need to update the global categories that define excess weight, which are now two decades old.
But that idea was rejected by a British expert in metabolic medicine.
Prof Naveed Sattar, from the University of Glasgow, said: "These data are of interest, but they do not change advice we have been giving on obesity and its treatment and prevention.
"The current findings do not mean that being overweight is protecting you from death, far from it.
"Obesity and overweight categories also signal risks for many diseases - such as type-2 diabetes, liver disease, cancers, sleeping problems, multiple pregnancy complications, to name but a few.
"Although we can manage many of those much better these days, such complications also impair quality of life and self-esteem, as well as increase health costs for societies." | Being overweight may not be as unhealthy as it was 40 years ago, Danish research suggests. |
38209067 | Cook, 31, holds England records for Test runs, caps and matches as captain.
Last month the opening batsman hinted he may stand down after the current tour of India, saying: "It could be two months, it could be a year."
Bayliss told BBC Test Match Special: "He's talking about the next Ashes series and being out in Australia."
The Australian added: "Sometimes there are little comments made along the way and they get blown out of all proportion.
"He's certainly up for the fight. I haven't had any discussion with him any other way and that's what we've been working towards.
"I was as surprised as anyone when I saw that in the papers."
England trail India 2-0 in the five-Test series, with the fourth match in Mumbai starting on Thursday.
Cook, who made his Test debut in India in 2006, has scored 10,934 runs at an average of 46.72 in 138 Tests, winning 24 of his 57 matches in charge.
Under Cook, England won the 2013 and 2015 Ashes on home soil, but lost 5-0 in Australia in 2013-14, only the third whitewash in Ashes history.
Michael Vaughan holds the England record of 26 Test wins as captain.
England host four Tests against South Africa and three against West Indies next summer, before the Ashes start in November. | England coach Trevor Bayliss is confident Alastair Cook will remain as Test captain for next winter's Ashes in Australia. |
37295032 | Oliver Falivena, 22, who was from the city, died at the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham a week after suffering head injuries.
A 30-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder and bailed while inquiries continue.
The attack took place in the city's market place on 29 August.
Mr Falivena's partner, Sophie Oakes, mother of his three-year-old daughter, said: "I love him so much and will miss him always.
"I promise to carry on making him proud and looking after our beautiful princess.
"It really has caused so much pain and heartbreak and I will always show memories to her and tell her how much of an amazing daddy he was." | A man has died in hospital following a bank holiday attack in Derby, police have said. |
40245067 | The company has identified the Middle East and Asia as new markets for potential growth, but said expansion would require further investment.
It said that it would therefore examine its options, which could include the sale of part or all of the business.
The firm was set up by Edward Stanley Gibbons in 1856 and is the world's longest established rare stamp trader.
It opened its first shop in 1891 on The Strand in London where it continues to trade from today. It also has overseas sites in Hong Kong and Singapore.
The company also sells coins and antiques, but is best known for its rare stamps business.
In April, it achieved a record for Indian stamps when a set of four featuring the portrait of Gandhi was sold for £500,000.
The company said it had undergone a major restructuring recently and had cut costs by more than £10m.
Commenting on exploring new global markets, Stanley Gibbons said: "Unlocking this incremental long-term value is likely to require further investment and the directors believe that it is likely therefore that such value is best delivered either within a larger group or alongside a strategic investment."
On Friday, Stanley Gibbons said it had received an approach regarded as a possible offer by Disruptive Capital Finance.
Disruptive is led by City financier Edi Truell, a former pensions adviser to Boris Johnson when he was mayor of London.
On Monday, however, Disruptive said it was not making an offer for Stanley Gibbons.
Disruptive said that on 31 May it had been informed by Stanley Gibbons "that an email we had sent them was interpreted by them as an approach" under the UK's Takeover rules.
It added that it had been in discussions with Stanley Gibbons's management "for some time".
Sfell 12.38% to 11.5p, after having jumped nearly 18% on Friday. | Stanley Gibbons, the 160-year-old rare stamp and collectables business, has put itself up for sale. |
32622365 | The Other Side of the Wind, which began filming 45 years ago and stars cinematic legends John Huston and Peter Bogdanovich, has never been seen.
A goal of $2m (£1.3m) has been set on crowdfunding Indiegogo, to fund the editing, score and post production.
This year the 100th anniversary of Welles' birth is being celebrated.
The movie has been described as "a scathing tale of friendship, betrayal, media and ambition in Hollywood".
Fans have until 14 June to donate, with perks including limited edition film prints and invitations to the movie's world premiere on offer for donations.
"Had crowdfunding been around in the 1970s, I believe Orson would have embraced it as a way of engaging filmgoers directly," said one of the movie's producers, Filip Jan Rymsza.
"Shot over five years in multiple formats, finishing the film is a huge technical undertaking."
Welles' daughter Beatrice has also put her name to the campaign.
"My father struggled his whole life to find funding to finish his pictures, but never as much as he did for this one," she said.
"He would truly be ecstatic to know that it was the people who really cared about his work who, in the end, brought his last dream to fruition." | A crowdfunding campaign has been launched to complete Orson Welles' unfinished final film. |
39334147 | Keith Gregory, 63, of no fixed address, appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court and was remanded in custody until an appearance on Thursday.
Gainsborough's The Morning Walk, part of the permanent British Paintings exhibition, was damaged on Saturday.
The painting has been removed from display until it is restored.
The 18th Century work depicts couple William Hallett and Elizabeth Stephen walking through a woodland landscape.
Dr Gabriele Finaldi, director of the National Gallery, said The Morning Walk was one of Gainsborough's "most famous" works.
He told the BBC: "It has all the dreamy, beautiful feathery brushstrokes of Gainsborough.
"When people think of Gainsborough, The Morning Walk may well be one of the first pictures that comes to their mind."
Gallery conservators are assessing the next steps of a conservation effort to restore the work.
Mr Gregory refused legal representation at the court hearing. | A man has appeared in court accused of criminal damage to a renowned Thomas Gainsborough painting at The National Gallery in London. |
39331354 | Frankie Davies had gone to Boscastle to do some shopping when she fell "in a heap" on the street and had no mobile signal to call for help.
She said by "incredible luck" a man watching the webcam saw her and phoned his mother who lives in Boscastle.
She then helped Mrs Davies who was treated in hospital.
More on the rescue story, plus more Devon and Cornwall news
Mrs Davies, from St Teath, had gone into the seaside town to get a present for her son.
"I crossed over the road and my left foot shot out in front of me and I just went down," she said.
Minutes later Becky Galvin, who lives in Boscastle, got a call from her son in Worcester.
"I suddenly noticed this lady coming to me and we hobbled back to her place," said Mrs Davies.
"It was amazing that someone in Worcester saw me lying there and and phoned his mum to say 'Can you help her?'"
She said there was nobody around as the weather was bad.
"I was in a lot of pain, so just laid there getting my breath, unable to move hoping things would improve.
"It just shows you how lovely people are really at heart doesn't it?
"They are absolutely wonderful people."
And she did not know there was a webcam, at the Riverside Hotel.
Owner Ross said: "I love the webcam, it was installed for visitors and friends to keep in touch with Boscastle.
"It's used all round the world and it's great that it's been used to help this particular lady."
Mrs Galvin and her son were unavailable for immediate comment. | A woman who fell and broke her ankle in a remote Cornish village was rescued because a man, sat 200 miles away in Worcester, saw her on a live webcam. |
37285399 | 6 September 2016 Last updated at 12:30 BST
The Ox is billed as "the world's first flat-pack van" - a two-wheel drive, off-roader made of marine plywood that can be assembled by non-experts in under 12 hours and travel 1,000km (620 miles) without filling up.
It's aimed at remote areas of, say Africa, where transporting food or equipment over difficult terrain is a problem.
It isn't quite as fast as Mr Murray's McLaren F1 supercar, but he hopes it will reach more people - thousands rather than a hundred or so.
The BBC's transport correspondent Richard Westcott got to test drive the Ox. | One of motorsport's most acclaimed designers, Gordon Murray, has produced a vehicle that "ranks above anything else I've ever done". |
27437339 | Sian O'Callaghan, from Swindon, was killed by taxi driver Christopher Halliwell, who had picked her up outside a nightclub.
The boots and a shotgun were found in a pond in Ramsbury, Wiltshire.
Halliwell pleaded guilty to killing Miss O'Callaghan but was not tried for a second murder after leading police to Becky Godden's buried body.
A police spokesman said: "Detectives are keeping an open mind as to why the gun would be in this location.
"Searches will continue over the weekend with fingertip searches and a specialist dive team from Avon and Somerset."
Miss O'Callaghan died from a single stab wound to the head. She was not shot.
The single-barrelled shotgun was discovered at about 16:00 BST.
Det Supt Steve Fulcher, who quit his job on Thursday, did not caution Halliwell before he led detectives to the field in Gloucestershire.
Halliwell pleaded guilty to murdering Miss O'Callaghan and was jailed for 25 years in October 2012.
Her body was found after an extensive police search at the Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire.
A police search has begun where the boots were found in Wiltshire, the second of which was retrieved from the water as reporters watched.
Det Ch Insp Sean Memory said he believed that Miss O'Callaghan may have been murdered at the scene before her body was moved to Uffington.
He added they were hopeful they might retrieve other items belonging to Miss O'Callaghan that were not found in the original inquiry.
He said a bag, mobile phone and jewellery were among the items missing.
"This is an important find and we are conducting thorough and detailed searches of the area," said Det Ch Insp Memory.
"There are other items of Sian's property outstanding [and] we will be focusing the search for these items but keeping an open mind on what we might find."
He added that Miss O'Callaghan's family were being kept up to date with developments.
At another recent police search, in Gloucestershire, a piece of bone from Miss Godden's body and "other items" were found but police have not revealed what they are. | Boots belonging to a woman who was murdered three years ago have been found, police say. |
39890426 | The Scotland captain returned from over two months on the sidelines with ankle ligament damage during April.
Laidlaw has been named on the bench for Gloucester in the Murrayfield showpiece against Stade Francais.
"I'm just delighted I'm back playing rugby, back fit, and that's the way I want to be and want to stay," he said.
"It's just about being sharp now when I get opportunities to play."
Should Laidlaw feature in the second-tier European final, it will be his fourth outing since recovering from the injury he sustained in Scotland's Six Nations defeat by France.
'It has been a season of ups and downs'
The scrum-half helped Gloucester lift the Challenge Cup in 2015, beating former side Edinburgh in the final.
And victory on Friday would earn the Cherry and Whites an opportunity to qualify for next season's top-tier Champions Cup competition, via a play-off.
"It's probably been touched on already with my injury that the coaches feel the team's been quite settled," Laidlaw continued.
"It's been tough for me to get some rugby under my belt with the nature of my injury, so I'll play my part.
"We know what it's like to win it and the good feeling that comes with it and, with that, it gives the club an opportunity to get into the Champions Cup as well.
"It's been a busy week, but if we can win on Friday, it'll make it a better week. We're all focused on winning the game."
Earlier this month, Laidlaw was added to the British and Irish Lions squad for the summer tour of New Zealand, replacing English counterpart Ben Youngs.
Gloucester currently sit ninth in the Aviva Premiership table and the Jedburgh native, who has 58 Scotland caps, admits it has been a season of highs and lows personally - and for his team.
"I suppose it has been a season of ups and downs - you get injured, you get back, I've been pulled into the Lions squad, which is a great upside, and I'm just delighted to get back fit," Laidlaw said.
"I thought I played pretty well last week [against Exeter Chiefs]; it was good to start and I'm feeling sharper and sharper day in, day out.
"We've had a bit of an up and down season in terms of the Premiership, but winning silverware is what it's all about.
"We'll need a big effort; we're playing a quality team. We need to put in a good performance on the field - if we do that, it's a wonderful track out there. " | Greig Laidlaw says he is thrilled simply to be playing rugby again as he prepares for Friday's European Challenge Cup final at Murrayfield. |
36846555 | During the incident on 17 January, the group shouted racial abuse at a member of the mosque and tied a St George's flag to the fence of the Jamia Mosque.
Kevin Crehan, 34, of Knowle, was jailed for 12 months and Mark Bennett, 48, of Patchway, for nine months.
Both had admitted religiously aggravated public order offences.
At the Bristol Crown Court hearing, 46-year-old Alison Bennett - the wife of Mark Bennett - was given a six-month sentence, suspended for two years, while Angelina Swales, 31, from Brislington, was handed a four-month sentence, suspended for two years.
The two women also admitted religiously aggravated public order offences in relation to the targeting of the Totterdown mosque.
All four were given a restraining order preventing them from going within 100m of a mosque anywhere in England or Wales for the next 10 years.
Insp Nigel Colston of Avon and Somerset Police paid tribute to the way the community responded to what happened.
He said: "The way local people came together with overwhelming support for the mosque made me proud to be associated with Bristol.
"There can never be any excuse for hate crime in any shape or form and this criminality will not be tolerated.
"All of our communities have the right to live and worship peacefully without fear of being targeted for their race or religion." | Two men have been jailed and two women have been given suspended sentences after rashers of bacon were tied to door handles at a Bristol mosque. |
32539194 | Wednesday's disappointing GDP figures also contributed to the sharp falls in the US.
The Dow Jones slumped 1%, or 195 points to 17,840, while the S&P 500 lost 21 points, or 1%, to 2,085.49 points.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq index ended the day down 1.6%, or 82 points, at 4,941.42 points.
After the close of trading, the business social network site LinkedIn reported a 35% rise in quarterly revenue to $637.7m. However its shares fell sharply in after-hours trading as analysts were disappointed by its sales forecast.
Harman International, which makes audio systems for cars, slipped 7% after posting worse than expected revenue forecasts for 2015.
Online listings company Yelp sank more than 23% after reporting slowing growth for the second consecutive quarter.
On the upside, shares in Glu Mobile, best known for creating the popular Kim Kardashian: Hollywood game soared almost 25% after China's Tencent said it would buy a 14.6% stake in the company for $126m.
The deal with one of China's biggest online gaming companies would help Glu expand in that market, the company said.
The Kardashian game has generated revenue of almost $100m since its release in June 2014 and Glu now plans one based on Britney Spears. | (Close): Wall Street closed sharply lower on Thursday as weak results from several companies hit investor sentiment. |
33090836 | Like-for-like sales in the three months to the end of May were £846m ($1.3bn: €1.16bn), down 3.9% from a year earlier.
The group had previously warned sales were likely to decline over the period.
Sales at Homebase were £438m, up 5.4%, partly due to stock clearance sales resulting from store closures.
"The performance at Argos in the quarter was broadly in line with both our expectations and previous guidance, with sales being adversely impacted by market declines in key electrical and seasonal product categories," said Home Retail Group chief John Walden.
"We continue to expect that sales will be challenging during the first half [of the financial year] at Argos, but we look forward to a stronger second half.
"Homebase has made a good start to the year." | Sales at Argos have been hit by a fall in demand for electrical goods, particularly TVs, computers and tablets, owner Home Retail Group said. |
35491036 | Unlike the character he played, the gentle medic Private Charles Godfrey, who was a conscientious objector in World War One, Ridley experienced hand-to-hand fighting in the trenches and was seriously injured by a German wielding a bayonet.
On Desert Island Discs in 1973, the playwright and actor described his first stint in the Army as "those dismal days" but added: "You know, memory is a strange thing. After a lapse of time, even the most miserable set of circumstances, roses seem to grow round them a little bit."
Roses, though, did not grow around his memories of World War Two, and while he could talk about his service in the first war, the "mental suffering" he experienced meant he would not speak of his time in the second.
He said: "To recount events, I would have to relive them. I am too afraid."
Born in Bath in 1896 and educated at Bristol University, Ridley made his acting debut in a production of Prunella at Bristol's Theatre Royal in 1913. But his stage career was put on hold with the advent of the Great War.
He had originally volunteered in 1914 at the age of 18, but was turned down as he had a broken toe sustained while playing rugby.
But the following year he was accepted by the Somerset Light Infantry and was stationed in Plymouth.
Years later, in an interview with the BBC, he admitted to being horribly homesick, having to cope with a "sadistic" regimental sergeant major and facing the prospect he might never survive the horrors of trench warfare.
He said: "I thought I was doing my duty for my country. I didn't know I was going to be treated like a convict. Did it make better soldiers of the callow youths we were then? I doubt it."
Private Ridley arrived in Arras in March 1916. He had removed his marksman's badge because he did not want to be made a sniper. He later commented: "I didn't go to France to murder people."
Within days of arriving he was hit in the back by shrapnel and shot through the thigh.
He had recovered by July 1916, and returned to the Western Front in time to take part in the Battle of the Somme.
The 20-year-old Ridley went into no man's land on 18 August. Fifteen of the men in his group were killed or seriously injured soon after leaving the trenches, when a preliminary barrage was dropped on them instead of the German machine-gun posts.
During the attempt to reach Delville Wood, Ridley's battalion suffered nearly 50% casualties. He later pointed out: "It wasn't a question of 'if I get killed', it was merely a question of 'when I get killed'.
"The trenches were full of water and I can remember getting out of the trench and lying on the parapet with the bullets flying around, because sleep was such a necessity and death only meant sleep."
Although a German bayonet was thrust into his left hand, cutting the tendons to his fingers, he survived. Ridley said "It's not altogether a right thought for a young man to hope he's been maimed for life - but I did. I thought 'well, if I've lost my hand I shall live. They can't send me out there again'."
After recovering in England, he faced the British Army Travelling Medical Board. A doctor suggested his hand injury was self-inflicted.
Ridley said he replied: "Yes, sir. My battalion is famous for self-inflicted wounds and just to make sure I cracked my skull with a rifle butt as well and ran a bayonet into my groin."
He was discharged from the British army on 27 August 1917.
Later that year he was given a white feather (a symbol of cowardice) by a woman in the street. He took it without comment.
When he was asked why a returning soldier would be treated in such a way, he answered: "I wasn't wearing my soldier's discharge badge. I didn't want to advertise the fact that I was a wounded soldier and I used to carry it in my pocket."
It can be seen as a foreshadow of the episode Dad's Army in which Godfrey is revealed to have been a conscientious objector in World War One.
The gentle medic has to face the wrath of the blustering and unsympathetic Captain Mainwaring - who derided him as a "conchie" - but it is later revealed that Godfrey had been a stretcher-bearer in the trenches, saved lives in the Somme and been awarded the Military Medal for exceptional bravery.
The time between the wars was an opportunity for Ridley to resume his career. In 1919 he joined the Repertory Theatre in Birmingham, appearing in more than 40 productions, and in 1923 he wrote the mystery thriller The Ghost Train, the most successful of his plays.
But they were not always good times - his wartime experiences led him to have nightmares. He said: "I would wake up drenched in sweat, sometimes I was afraid I would black out when I was on stage."
The outbreak of World War Two saw him join the British Expeditionary Force as an intelligence officer.
Ridley, now a major, was sent to France in 1939. He later admitted: "Within hours of setting foot on the quay at Cherbourg in September 1939, I was suffering from acute shell shock again. It is quite possible that outwardly I showed little, if any, of it.
"It took the form of mental suffering that at best could be described as an inverted nightmare."
Ridley was evacuated from Dunkirk in May 1940 and, aged 44, was demobilised from the Army. He joined the Local Defence Volunteers - the organisation that later became the Home Guard - before touring bases entertaining the troops.
He appeared in numerous shows through the 1950s and 60s, including The Archers and Crossroads, until he was cast, aged 72, in Dad's Army in 1968. He played the role of Godfrey until the series finished in 1977.
Ridley married three times and had one child, Nicolas. He is also the great-uncle of Star Wars actress Daisy Ridley, although he died aged 88 in 1984 - eight years before she was born.
He was awarded the OBE in 1982 - but for services to drama, not his heroic exploits in two world wars.
Sources: Desert Island Discs, IMDB, Bristol University Archives, This is Your Life | As the film version of Dad's Army is released at cinemas across the country, BBC News looks at the life of Arnold Ridley, the only actor in the original television series to serve in both World War One and Two. |
41038342 | Earlier Dragons were beaten 40-23 by Glasgow Warriors at Ebbw Vale's Eugene Cross Park home.
And there were similar defeats for west Wales teams Scarlets and Ospreys.
Gloucester proved too strong for Scarlets in a 40-21 win at Kingsholm while Ospreys were beaten 40-14 at Leicester.
Returning fly-half James Hook was powerless to prevent Ospreys' loss at Welford Road, but wing Jeff Hassler touched down on his first appearance after 10 months out injured.
Olympics Sevens silver medallist Sam Cross came off the Ospreys' bench as he sought to impress in the sport's full version.
Leicester wing Jonny May went over twice as they eased to victory.
Scarlets were level 7-7 at the break at Gloucester after Willi Heinz and Gareth Davies exchanged tries.
But the hosts built a commanding lead by the time Wales prop Rob Evans and scrum-half Aled Davies went over late on for the visitors.
However, lock lock Jake Ball returned after missing Wales' summer tour Tests against Tonga and Samoa.
Ball also missed Scarlets' win over Munster in the Pro12 final in Dublin.
Prop Samson Lee was in the pack and Scotland flanker John Barclay among the replacements.
Blues wing Aled Summerhill went over twice and half-time replacement Evans' late shot went over after Henry Slade had kicked the visitors ahead.
Summerhill struck back after Don Armand scored Exeter's opening try and did so again after Sam Simmonds went over for the Chiefs.
Earlier Dragons were beaten 40-23 by Glasgow Warriors at Ebbw Vale's Eugene Cross Park home.
A dead leg ruled summer signing Gavin Henson out of that game.
But he is expected to be in contention for Dragons' opening Pro14 match against Leinster on Saturday, 2 September.
Angus O'Brien kicked an early penalty and converted half-back partner Charlie Davies' opening try at Eugene Cross Park.
Rory Hughes began the fight-back and Ruaridh Jackson also crossed as Warriors led 14-13 at the break.
O'Brien put Dragons briefly in front, but Nick Grigg, Scott Cummings, Sam Johnson and Paddy Kelly sealed Glasgow's win.
Scarlets (v Gloucester, a): J McNicholl; T Prydie, H Parkes, S Williams (capt), M Williams; R Patchell, G Davies; W Jones, R Elias, S Lee, J Ball, T Beirne, A Shingler, J Macleod, W Boyde.
Reps: E Phillips, R Evans, W Kruger, D Bulbring, L Rawlins, J Barclay, J Evans, R Jones, P Asquith, A Davies, T Grabham.
Cardiff Blues (v Exeter, h): M Morgan; A Cuthbert, G Smith, W Halaholo, A Summerhill; S Shingler, L Williams; R Gill, M Rees, T Filise, S Davies, D Welch, M Cook, E Jenkins (capt), J Navidi.
Reps: K Myhill, C Domachowski, K Assiratti, J Down, J Turnbull, T Williams, J Evans, J Roberts, O Lane, T James, D Fish.
Dragons (v Glasgow, h): Z Kirchner; A Hewitt, T Morgan, S Beard, H Amos; A O'Brien, S Pretorius; B Harris, E Dee, L Brown, M Screech, A Sweet, J Thomas (capt), O Griffiths, J Benjamin.
Reps: R Buckley, T Davies, L Fairbrother, L Greggains, N Cudd, C Davies, D Jones, A Warren, A Hughes, J Rosser, P Howard.
Ospreys (v Leicester, a): D Evans; K Giles, C Allen, O Watkin, J Hassler; J Hook, T Habberfield (capt); P James, S Parry, M Fia, B Davies, R Thornton, R McCusker, O Cracknell, D Baker.
Reps: I Phillips, N Smith, R Jones, L Ashley, A Beard, M Aubrey, J Thomas, B John, G Thomas, S Cross, R Morgan-Williams, T Williams, J Baker, J Ratti. | Cardiff Blues fly-half Jarrod Evans kicked a late penalty as they beat visitors Exeter Chiefs 21-20 in their final pre-season warm-up. |
29002723 | Four people were injured after a man deliberately drove a Vauxhall car at them on Crossmill Avenue at 18.05 on Saturday.
The incident followed an altercation with the group.
Three men aged 29, 39 and 48 were taken to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, as was a 41-year-old woman. The 39-year-old is still in hospital with serious injuries.
The other three people were released after treatment.
It is understood police are following a positive line of inquiry. | Police are treating a hit and run in Barrhead as attempted murder. |
36181926 | The 25-year-old from Birmingham beat Russia's Konstantin Kravchuk 3-6 6-4 6-4 in Sunday's final.
Evans, a member of Britain's Davis Cup-winning team last year, is on course to rise from 123rd to around 97th - the first time he has broken the top 100.
He was ranked 766th in the world at this stage last year.
Evans will join fellow Britons Andy Murray (2), Aljaz Bedene (59) and Kyle Edmund (89) among the world's top 100 men in Monday's new rankings.
Never want to miss the latest tennis news? You can now add this sport and all the other sports and teams you follow to your personalised My Sport home. | Dan Evans is set to become the fourth British man ranked inside the world's top 100 after winning an ATP Challenger title in Taiwan. |
35174134 | A joint investigation is under way after a body was found at the building on Vale Road, Rhyl, at about 17:00 GMT on Wednesday.
Eleven neighbouring properties were evacuated and residents were moved to Rhyl leisure centre.
There was nothing to suggest the fire was suspicious, North Wales Police said on Thursday.
The force is working with the fire service to establish the cause of the fire and the identity of the deceased, a police spokeswoman added. | A fatal fire at a workshop in Denbighshire is being treated as unexplained, police have said. |
37463985 | Rickie Lambert's first goals for his new club helped Cardiff out of the Championship bottom three and eased the pressure on their new manager.
Trollope received backing from Cardiff's board this week despite only being appointed in the summer.
"Of course [we are relieved] we have been disappointed with the run that we have been on," Trollope told BBC Wales.
"We are disappointed with our league position, but we have got the quality to turn things around.
"When you've been on a run like this, then of course confidence and belief takes a dip and creates a difficult situation.
"But we showed the spirit of the group and the resilience."
Trollope hopes the victory over the Millers will silence critics of the club after Lambert's firm header and deflected winner gave the Bluebirds a first away victory since March.
"It is a big statement to our detractors, to roar back from a goal down, especially on the run we have been on, was a real big statement from the group and I am really proud of that," he said.
"We looked at a lot of things over the last few weeks to try and turn thing around.
"For the winning goal we had a bit of luck, but we were due some. We had a huge desire."
Trollope said the experience of England striker Lambert, a free transfer arrival from West Brom on transfer deadline day, would be crucial to the Bluebirds' prospects of climbing the table.
Rickie Lambert has got the respect of the dressing because of what he has done in his career," he said.
"We are delighted he has got off the mark. Rickie is a real leader of men.
"We have to get things correct around him to maximise his ability." | Cardiff boss Paul Trollope admitted he was relieved after the Bluebirds came from behind to beat Rotherham 2-1. |
36888694 | Diez, ranked 108 places below the Briton at 192 in the world, won 3-6 6-1 6-2 to claim his first victory in the main draw of an ATP tournament.
Edmund, 21, was playing for the first time since winning both singles rubbers in Britain's Davis Cup win over Serbia.
Meanwhile, Naomi Broady progressed but Heather Watson went out in the women's event, which takes place in Montreal.
British number three Broady, ranked 84, defeated Puerto Rico's Monica Puig 3-6 6-4 6-2 and faces French Open champion Garbine Muguruza next.
World number 67 Watson was beaten 7-5 6-3 by 2011 US Open champion Sam Stosur.
Serena Williams, Andy Murray, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have all pulled out of the tournament, with Angelique Kerber and Novak Djokovic the top seeds.
You can now add tennis alerts in the BBC Sport app - simply head to the menu and My Alerts section | Kyle Edmund suffered a surprise defeat by Canadian wildcard Steven Diez in the Rogers Cup first round in Toronto. |
36263701 | The company announced a net loss of 13.1bn yen ($120.5m, £83m) for its financial year ending in March.
It has been hit by a huge recall of faulty, potentially deadly, airbags used by car makers worldwide, which may affect more than 100 million vehicles.
The fault has been linked to the loss of 11 lives and more than 100 injuries.
Takata has acknowledged some airbag inflators explode with too much force and spray metal shrapnel into the car.
Takata has paid out $70m (£48m) in fines so far and the company's market value has dropped more than 80% since 2014.
Some 50 million vehicles have been recalled globally and last week, US authorities added up to 40 million more.
US regulators believe the volatile chemical used in the inflators, ammonium nitrate, can cause airbags to explode with excessive force.
Globally, 12 car makers are affected with Japan's Honda being the worst hit.
100m
or more vehicle recalls expected
11 deaths linked to Takata airbags
100 or more injured
12 car makers affected
80% drop in market value
Several automakers, including Toyota, Honda, Mazda and Ford have said they will stop using Takata airbags containing ammonium nitrate for their future models.
The firm also produces seatbelts, child seats, and other safety-related car parts.
For the current year, Takata forecast a net profit of 13bn yen.
The Japanese company's shares ended Wednesday 2.5% higher, after losing 11% this week and more than 80% over the year. | Japanese airbag maker Takata reported its third full-year loss in four years as it grapples with the rising costs of recalling them. |
35830275 | And there are others who don't need as much money as they're getting.
That in essence has been the view of successive governments as they've tried to reduce the amount the state pays in disability benefits.
It assumes there is a large group of undeserving benefit recipients that can be flushed out with increasingly focused assessments. The evidence, however, suggests that's simply not true.
Following Wednesday's budget announcements, the immediate focus is on PIP, Personal Independence Payment, which is replacing Disability Living Allowance. The government plans to tighten the criteria for the benefit, saving £1.3bn by 2020, and affecting 640,000 people.
Claimants, including those currently on DLA, are assessed for their eligibility by the DWP. It's a two-step process. People complete a self-assessment form and supply medical evidence, before undergoing a test carried out by Atos or Capita on behalf of the government.
The aim of PIP is to ensure people get the right help - and to save money. But consistently, officials have had to increase the cost of the benefit.
In October 2014, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecast that spending on disability benefits between 2015 and 2019 would total £55.9bn. In its forecast on Wednesday, that figure had risen to £66.4bn - an increase of £10.5bn.
The OBR said the rising costs were because of higher-than-expected caseloads - and people getting more money than ministers had predicted. The average payout is now £100 a week, 14% higher than expected.
"The introduction of PIP is generating much smaller savings than the government was aiming for," it said.
Even if the government manages to push through its latest reforms, and some Tory MPs are said to be queasy at the prospect, costs will still increase according to the OBR - to £17.7bn in 2019-20 and £18.2bn in 2020-21.
PIPs are benefit payments to help people aged 16-64 with "some of the extra costs caused by long-term ill-health or a disability".
They are available to employed and unemployed people and claimants can receive between £21.80 and £139.75 a week, depending on how their condition affects them.
This is determined by an assessment and claimants are regularly reassessed.
From April 2013, PIPs began replacing Disability Living Allowance.
This process is ongoing and the government says everyone who needs to switch to PIPs should have been contacted by late 2017.
Costs have also risen because claimants are being increasingly successful in appealing against officials' decisions, often helped by charities. The DWP hope to stop that - a little-noted item in the Budget gave the DWP £22m to hire more staff to attend to the appeals and put the department's case.
The problems with PIP are mirrored by ESA, Employment and Support Allowance, the main sickness benefit.
When the Labour government announced the idea in 2006, they predicted that within a decade, a million fewer people would be claiming it than the payment it was replacing, incapacity benefit (IB).
A decade later, the number of ESA recipients is virtually the same as those who were getting IB in 2006. Internal DWP documents I saw in 2014 described ESA as "one of the largest fiscal risks currently facing the government". Costs since then have continued to rise.
With so many errant forecasts, it's little wonder the OBR said that the over-optimism about how much welfare changes will save is an ongoing problem.
But despite these challenges, the OBR also concluded that the government is on track by 2020-21 to spend the lowest amount on welfare, as a percentage of GDP, in 30 years. | There are people getting disability benefits who don't deserve them. |
38488863 | Sunday's riot involved dozens of locals enraged by the killing of a 21-year-old Polish man, identified only as Daniel R, outside a kebab restaurant.
Investigators believe the Tunisian cook, 26, confronted Daniel R after he and another Pole stole two bottles of drink from the premises on Saturday.
Police detained 28 during the unrest.
Early on Sunday angry local Poles smashed some of Prince Kebab's windows and at least one firecracker was thrown at the restaurant. Anti-foreigner slogans were chanted, the Associated Press reports.
When police formed a cordon outside there were scuffles, as some rioters threw bottles and stones, and police resorted to using tear gas, Polish media reported.
The reports say the Tunisian has admitted taking a knife from the restaurant before running out after the two men.
Autopsy results are still awaited to determine the exact cause of death of Daniel R.
Polish TVN24 news says the Algerian owner of the restaurant ran out with the Tunisian cook during the quarrel on Saturday night. | Polish prosecutors have charged a Tunisian man with murder over a knife attack that sparked a riot in the north-eastern town of Elk. |
40525900 | In his first international 400m since breaking the world record in the 2016 Olympic final, the 24-year-old South African won in 43.62 seconds.
It beat Michael Johnson's record at this meeting of 43.66, set in 1996.
Britain's Laura Muir, 24, ran a personal best of one minute 58.69 seconds to finish fifth in the 800m.
Compatriot Lynsey Sharp, 26, set a season's best of 1:58:80 to finish seventh in a race won by Burundi's Francine Niyonsaba in 1:56.82.
Scot Muir, who has recently recovered from a stress fracture in a foot, said: "You do not realise the value of something until it is taken away from you."
Eilidh Doyle, 30, ran a season's best 54.36 in finishing third the 400m hurdles.
Fellow Britain James Dasaolu, 29, was fifth in the 100m in 10.12 as 35-year-old American Justin Gatlin won in 9.96. | World record holder Wayde van Niekerk ran the fastest 400m time of the year on his return to action at the Diamond League meeting in Lausanne. |
31706447 | Anthony Crook, 37, from Clacton, was working in Dubai when his image was released by Essex Police in 2010.
He was not prosecuted, but the force said publication was in the public interest. A judge at the High Court disagreed and said it was not "necessary and proportionate".
Mr Crook was awarded £67,750.
Judge Deborah Taylor said sex offences carry a great stigma and the release of his image, name and allegation was a violation of his human rights when more could have been done to locate him first.
"Whilst the press release was to local media, no consideration was given to the realities of modern technology: firstly, the potential for information to spread across the internet, and secondly, the difficulty once spread in eradicating that," she told the court.
"The police lost control of the data."
Mr Crook only found out about the article - alleging he was wanted and at large over an attack in Clacton - through his family.
It included an address for him and a photo taken when he was a teenager.
Mr Crook said the allegation was "malicious" and there was no need to publicise it, as he had already offered to speak to police to clear it up.
The result was that he was left "unemployed and unemployable", his lawyers told the High Court.
"I was financially in a very good place and that's completely wiped out overnight," he told Judge Taylor.
"The fact they didn't remove these things for such a long period of time made it impossible to get back into work and rebuild my life."
Police agreed to remove the story but it had already spread to other media around the world.
Mr Crook sued for breach of confidence, in publishing the old photo, and for breaches of the Data Protection Act and a violation of his human right to privacy.
Outside court, Mr Crook said he was "extremely happy" he had been vindicated.
"I now feel my name has been cleared and there has been an acknowledgement that the police had done wrong," he said.
The force, which contested the claims, was ordered on Monday to pay Mr Crook's legal costs of more than £100,000. | An ex-city banker has won nearly £70,000 in damages from police who named him in a "10 most wanted" list as an alleged rapist. |
35688761 | After Guiseley's Ollie Norburn lobbed Tom King from the throw-in, Braintree expected to be allowed a walk-in goal.
But Mark Bower's side played on, and the National League game finished 1-1.
"They decided a draw was more important than their integrity and reputation," Iron boss Danny Cowley told BBC Sport.
"For me, my integrity and dignity is worth much more than that."
Guiseley manager Bower said on Saturday that goalkeeper King "stood there with his arms in the air and allowed the ball to go in to the net".
Lions chairman Phil Rogerson said in a statement on Monday: "Having had time to sleep (or not) on the incident on Saturday, myself, Mark and the club find the situation most regrettable and not in line with the general ethos of Guiseley AFC. Fair play is and always has been at the heart of the club.
"The decision to continue playing as normal after the goal was taken on the spur of the moment and under extreme pressure, not helped at all by the heated atmosphere."
He added that he was advised by match referee Tom Nield the goal would have to be reported to the Football Association as an exceptional incident.
Cowley alleged that the referee had asked Bower to allow the Iron to score following Norburn's goal, an accusation Guiseley have categorically denied.
And Cowley said he bears no grudges toward the referee, adding: "For me it's not the referee's fault. He has to referee the game within the laws. It's up to us as players and managers to play within the spirit of the game and on this occasion that's been broken.
"We're disappointed with that, but we have to draw a line under the incident and carry the emotion - we have to make sure we use this to bring us closer together as a group.
"Ultimately, you either get bitter or get better after situations like this, and we're going to choose to get better."
The National League said it is "not prudent to make any comment until the outcomes of any FA investigation are made official".
Braintree are one point outside of the play-offs following Saturday's draw, while Guiseley are 18th in the table. | Guiseley have called events in the home draw against Braintree "regrettable", following an equaliser which was scored after the visitors had kicked the ball out of play for an injured player. |
33107087 | Naomi Haine Wilkins, 36, from Cwmbran, is hoping to raise £6,000 to train the dog for five-year-old Greyson, who was diagnosed when he was three.
Ms Wilkins has sent messages to thank the woman but has not received a reply.
She hopes a dog will be a companion for Greyson and reduce his anxiety.
Ms Wilkins said it began with a generous £50 donation from the stranger, and emailed her to say thank you.
"I have no idea who this woman is," she said.
"I asked her if there was any chance she could send me her address so I could send a little something to say thank you, with Greyson's hand print, something personal."
The woman did not respond, but the following day donated £4,000 with the message: "Go get your dog little man love to you and bless you
Ms Wilkins said: "Things like this don't happen to me of all people.
"I thought maybe it was an error, that she'd added an extra zero by mistake. I couldn't believe it, absolutely gobsmacked.
"She still hasn't replied to me so I guess the lady in question doesn't want a thank you or anything in return."
Ms Wilkins can now afford to put down a deposit for the dog.
She said: "He loves animals and he says he can't wait to play and dance with his dog.
"He has no perception of any dangers. He'll walk into ponds or in front of cars and a dog will be trained to guide him and respond to key words. It will also take some of the focus off me." | A woman from Torfaen said she was "gobsmacked" after a stranger donated £4,000 online to help buy her autistic son an assistance dog. |
38159772 | The Non-Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme has left taxpayers with a multi-million pound bill.
David Sterling was permanent secretary at the Department of Enterprise Trade and Investment when the initiative was set up in 2012.
But generous subsidies and poor regulation meant it ran away from officials.
It could cost taxpayers up to £20m annually for 20 years to make up the funding shortfall.
That is money that will have to come out of the block grant.
Mr Sterling, who is now the permanent secretary at the Department of Finance, appeared before the assembly's Public Accounts committee this afternoon.
He said the subsidy rate and the failure to review the scheme after 18 months were the key issues and he had "no satisfactory answer" for why a planned review in January 2014 did not happen.
He left the department in July of that year.
DUP and Sinn Féin MLAs said he appeared to be attempting to "pass the blame" for the mismanagement of the scheme.
But Mr Sterling said he was not trying to "duck responsibility".
"I'm not seeking to pass the buck," he said. "I accept responsibility for failures which occurred during my time."
Mr Sterling said he was "not conscious" of the need to carry out the review in January 2014.
He said his recollection of the scheme was that it had been under-performing and had meant his department handing back money it could not spend.
Applications to the scheme subsequently increased when plans were announced to change the subsidy rate in 2015.
A 20-year commitment to make subsidy payments meant a spike in applications left officials with a massive bill.
It is estimated the scheme could now cost up more than £1bn. It was originally estimated to cost about half that. | A senior civil servant has denied "ducking responsibility" for a huge overspend on a green energy scheme. |
32231472 | Derby Cathedral is to have an £800,000 refurbishment and will be closed during the week until the end of August.
It means some services will be held at nearby St Mary's church, starting on Thursday evening.
An Association of English Cathedrals spokeswoman said she believed this had not happened before in the UK.
Derby Cathedral was awarded £660,000 in government grants and has raised more than £120,000 toward work on the heating, wiring and roof.
Lucille Parsisson, from the cathedral, said: "We are very grateful to St Mary's for helping us out but we have a very good relationship with them.
"It struck us that while Anglican church services had been held in Catholic churches before, we couldn't think of a time when a cathedral service had been.
"The curate did some research and found it was indeed the first time."
Ms Parsisson said they planned to use St Mary's three times a week for Evening Prayers or Evensong and the Anglican Chapel of St Mary on the Bridge in the morning.
A spokeswoman for the Association of English Cathedrals, which represents English Anglican cathedrals, said she could not recall an Anglican cathedral service ever being held in a Catholic church before. | Anglicans are to hold a cathedral service in a Roman Catholic Church in what is thought to be a first in the UK. |
35262069 | The accident happened at Quakers Yard in Treharris at about 14:15 GMT on Thursday.
South Wales Police said it is investigating and appealed for witnesses.
No-one was injured in the crash. | An elderly driver is recovering after crashing his car into the front of a bungalow in Merthyr Tydfil. |
37026149 | A local gun club, which already has access to indoor premises, has applied for permission for another site which is close to housing and schools.
The application is for a green field area on the Ballymacormick Road in Bangor, close to Groomsport village.
North Down and Ards Borough Council said the application was currently being assessed.
Some local politicians have expressed concerns at the proposed location of the range, although Jim Shannon, the DUP MP for Strangford, has written a letter in support of the application.
Bangor, Clandeboye and District Rifle and Pistol Club said they were committed to working with planners and the local community.
"The club welcomes hearing all views, good and bad, so they can be incorporated into the planning process to develop the necessary solutions," it said in a statement.
"The club wants to assure the local community they will be a good neighbour at all times, whether the application is successful or not."
Ulster Unionist MLA Alan Chambers said he had received 50 letters of objection, on top of nearly 250 which had been sent to the council.
"It obviously has caused a lot of concern in the area and a lot of objections have come in about it," said Mr Chambers.
"I've never seen any planning application attract the number of objections in such a short period of time.
"It's quite obvious it's completely unacceptable in this part of Bangor."
Reasons for complaints included noise from the site, its safety implications and an increase in traffic, said DUP councillor Peter Martin, who had also been contacted by a number of unhappy constituents.
"I'm supportive of shooting as a sport in Northern Ireland, I think if people want to engage in that, that's fine," he said.
"However, I do feel very clearly that the current application and where it's going to be situated is just not the right place, it is at the bottom of a residential road and I do not feel that that is the right position for a target range.
"I'd be saying to the club that they need to think about this and reconsider the location of this proposed range, there are plenty of places where this could be housed."
Heather Patton, who runs nearby Groomsport Playgroup, said she was really worried about the plans.
"The back garden where the children play would be approximately 200 metres from this gun range," she said.
"I also live in the village and would be overlooking the gun range. I have children that play."
Ms Patton said two prospective clients had already pulled their children from the playgroup's waiting list due to concerns about the shooting range.
Any shooting range of this nature would be heavily regulated, said the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC).
"A gun club of this type is heavily regulated by the PSNI under article 49 of the Northern Ireland Firearms Order and the Guidance on the Northern Ireland Firearms Controls which is a fairly stringent document," said BASC Northern Ireland Director Tommy Mayne.
"There's quite a few hoops to jump through."
In a statement, North Down and Ards Borough Council said the application was still under consideration.
"No recommendation will be made by the council's planning department until responses have been received from all of the statutory bodies that have been consulted and the proposal has been fully assessed," it said in a statement.
"This assessment will take into account all material planning considerations [such as traffic impact, impact on the residential amenity of nearby properties and any potential noise impact], including any representations received from third parties."
The BBC was unable to contact the organisation behind the proposed range. | Some 300 people have objected to plans for an outdoor shooting range in Bangor, County Down. |
38385688 | The 34-year-old has been training with the Clarets to build up his fitness after leaving Scottish Premiership club Rangers in mid-November.
Its great to be back!
Joey Barton on Twitter
He left Burnley in May after helping them win the Championship title.
Barton joined Rangers on a free transfer in the summer but only made seven appearances for the club.
The former Manchester City, Newcastle and Queens Park Rangers had his contract with the Ibrox outfit terminated following a training-ground altercation in September.
Barton was given a one-match suspension for breaking Scottish Football Association rules on gambling during his time north of the border.
The ban will apply in the Premier League because of an agreement between the home nations. | Joey Barton is set to re-sign for Burnley on a short-term deal until the end of the season, subject to international clearance. |
36684984 | Indonesia's Sri Wahyuni Agustiani took silver with 192kg and Japan's Hiromi Miyake, who was second four years ago, claimed bronze by lifting 188kg.
Tanasan, 21, managed 92kg in the snatch and 108kg in the clean and jerk.
Pre-tournament favourite Hou Zhihui of China pulled out five days before the start of the event because of a knee injury.
Subscribe to the BBC Sport newsletter to get our pick of news, features and video sent to your inbox. | Thailand's Sopita Tanasan lifted a combined 200kg to win the Olympic women's 48kg weightlifting title. |
37104847 | The rock fall happened on the East Cliff section of West Bay on Dorset's Jurassic Coast on Tuesday evening.
No-one was hurt but coastguards and police urged people to stay away from the top and bottom of the cliff.
In 2012, tourist Charlotte Blackman died at nearby Hive Beach when she was buried under a rock fall.
A specialist urban response team and dog unit searched the area of the latest collapse but coastguards said there was no evidence anyone was trapped.
The beach and South West Coast Path, which has been assessed by Dorset County Council's coast and countryside service, remain open.
The authority said the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site team, West Bay Harbour Master and the landowner, Freshwater Beach Holiday Park, had carried out a survey to assess the fall and the stability of the cliff.
The rock fall follows a previous one in the same area in July.
Sam Scriven, Jurassic Coast earth science manager, said: "Rock falls like this are entirely unpredictable.
"However, East Cliff at West Bay does seem to be particularly active at the moment."
He added: "Landslides and rock falls can, and do, happen at any time - and you can be at risk even at low tide."
Coastguard duty controller Peter Davies urged people to stay away and said: "Last night's cliff fall is an example of just how unstable cliff edges can be.
"The incident could have had a very different outcome, and fortunately no-one was seriously hurt or worse."
Ch Insp Steve White of Dorset Police warned further rock falls could occur.
He said: "We urge the public to obey warning signs, not to stand near the edge of cliffs or stand directly underneath them."
Gem Gilbert, who photographed the landslip, said on Twitter: "Cute evening down the beach chilling, next thing you know part of the Clift [sic] had fallen down."
Police initially said some people suffered minor injuries but since confirmed no-one was hurt.
Coastguards said an infra-red helicopter search was completed but the warm temperature of the rocks meant it was inconclusive. | Sightseers have been seen clambering over rocks where a section of cliff collapsed, despite warnings from emergency services to stay away. |
39664640 | The Jags had been accused of listing an ineligible player by naming Callum Murray as a substitute in last week's game against Formartine United.
But the league's management committee decided no action would be taken against the club.
However, it also decided that its rules would be reworded.
Murray, who did not play in the 0-0 draw with Formartine, had recently been recalled from a loan spell with Highland League rivals Deveronvale to cover for injuries.
In season 1992-1993, Elgin City won the Highland League but were later stripped of the title after having been found to have fielded ineligible players.
Buckie are likely to win the championship if they beat bottom side Strathspey Thistle on Saturday.
The Jags and Cove Rangers are two points behind Brora Rangers, but the present leaders have played all of their games.
Buckie have a superior goal difference over Cove, who face 12th-placed Lossiemouth, going into the final game of the season.
The title winners will have a chance to win promotion to League Two of the Scottish Professional Football League.
Victors of the Highland and Lowland Leagues will meet in a play-off to decide who should face League Two's bottom club in the play-off final. | Highland League title challengers Buckie Thistle have avoided a points deduction that would have cost them the chance to win the title on Saturday. |
40397433 | Northern Ireland Water (NIW) had to shut down five hydrants in the New Lodge and North Queen St areas on Saturday evening because of vandalism.
NIW received about 20 reports from residents who had lost water supply.
It appealed to the community and public representatives to stop children and young people from damaging hydrants.
"Some may see it as 'harmless fun' by kids," the company said in a statement.
"The reality is, as they play in the water, homes and businesses are suffering low water pressure or no water at all."
The firm added: "The whole community needs to help us put a stop to this behaviour before the unthinkable scenario occurs where a fire breaks out and there is no water for the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service to deal with the fire."
Last week, SDLP MLA Nichola Mallon told the BBC disruption to supply began on Sunday, 18 June.
She said it was "particularly hard" for elderly people and parents with young children "when there is no access to water to bath them".
At the time, Ms Mallon called on NI Water to find a "more robust way of securing the hydrants to prevent this abuse".
She asked: "Surely, in this day and age, there must be a way of securing them so they cannot be tampered with?"
However, NI Water replied it had used "vandal-proof" hydrant lids but insisted "if someone has the time and the resources, they can eventually break these open". | The water supply in part of north Belfast has been disrupted after vandals damaged fire hydrants in the area for a second time in seven days. |
36898391 | This week's statement by Iain McNicol, general secretary of the Labour Party, was blunt: "There is no place for abuse of any kind in the party," he declared. "There is simply too much of it taking place and it needs to stop."
Politics involves debate and sometimes it gets heated; but when a party has to restrain the discussion within its own ranks, something has gone seriously wrong.
Labour is holding a leadership election this summer, but has had to suspend its most basic forums for debate - the regular meetings of its constituency parties. That's how bad things have got between those who support Jeremy Corbyn and those who do not.
I heard an example of this from Nora Mulreedy, a member from north London. When she complained about postings in a closed Facebook group in which a fellow member had referred to "killing" disloyal MPs, she found herself the subject of complaint for raising it in public.
Mr McNicol argues that condemning abuse is not enough, and he urged members to report such behaviour to Labour's "validation" department. I assume these are the same people currently scrutinising those wanting to vote in this leadership election who applied during last week's 48-hour window for registered supporters.
According to those involved, there are just 15 people scrutinising around 183,500 would-be voters. Software "cobbled together in-house" is checking social media posts for any evidence that applicants don't share Labour's values.
They're "looking at bile", a source inside the party says, and expect a number in the low thousands to be rejected for that reason.
On the surface, Labour is in rude health. It's size has more than doubled in a year, to more than 515,000, something that these days is pretty rare.
Many in its establishment, though, are nervous of these new members; older hands fear a re-run of the early 1980s, when what was called the "Militant Tendency" was accused of infiltration.
At a telephone canvassing event at the offices of Unite, one of the big unions which affiliate to Labour, one woman told me her attempts to join the party had been rejected; for nearly a year, she'd tried without success to get an explanation.
She told me she'd last been in the party in the early 1980s, and hadn't belonged to any other party since. She did admit to having been a member of Militant at the time, "but that was thirty years ago," she said. "I'm over sixty now, I work with children, I'm not going to be lobbing bricks through anyone's window."
A few years ago, she might well have been readmitted. After all, some ex-Militants even ended up as MPs (one I know of was a pretty successful Business Minister). On the other side, quite a lot of those who defected to the SDP also rejoined without fuss.
Now, though, suspicion and mutual distrust suggest neither side is willing to believe the declared motives of the other. Abuse is a symptom of that, magnified by social media which seems to have the same effect on some people as getting behind the wheel does on others. Twitter rage, like road rage, has its casualties.
Professor Tim Bale and colleagues at Queen Mary, University of London surveyed new members. Of those who've joined since 2015, only around 30 per cent of them have delivered leaflets and half that number have done canvassing.
"Far more of them actually are prepared to re-tweet and to share things on Facebook. These are people who are in politics electronically, as it were; they're clicktavists, not activists."
Things will be particularly intense online and everywhere else between now and 8 August, the final deadline for leadership votes.
It's too late to become a party member or registered supporter; but members of affiliated organisations, including unions and the quaintly named Woodcraft Folk among others, who can apply for a vote until that date.
Nora, who I mentioned earlier, is part of Saving Labour, the online campaign seeking to counter the Corbyn surge. Her opposition to Mr Corbyn remaining leader is because she believes he lessens the chances of a general election victory. She's irritated that people like her are dismissed as "Blairite", a word that's used as a term of abuse.
"If wanting a Labour Government that can fight against poverty in a meaningful way, changes laws, gets people more money in their pocket makes me a Blairite, fine. I'll take that label and wear it proudly," she says.
Still, there are signs that the ten months of Mr Corbyn's leadership has diminished some of the euphoria.
The telephone canvassing event I mentioned was organised by Momentum, a group which helped him to win. During the telephone conversations, I noticed one of the questions being asked was a respondent's "reason for dropping support for JC". Among the potential boxes to tick in response was "bad party leader".
One of those I met there was Noel, a smartly dressed elderly man who'd joined Labour on leaving the RAF in 1969. He's frustrated at the growing gulf between Corbyn supporters like him and most of the party's MPs.
"The Labour Party in parliament is a flower without any roots," he says. "The party in the country are roots without any flowers."
Jeremy Corbyn's critics doubtless would say the roots are fine, but too many weeds have now attached themselves.
Yet Mr Corbyn still enjoys one big advantage - the passion of his supporters. By contrast, at the end of my interview with Nora and two of her fellow supporters of Saving Labour, my producer noticed that they hadn't mentioned Owen Smith, the leadership challenger, at all.
Shaun Ley presents The World This Weekend during the summer, at 1300 BST on Sundays, and afterwards available on the Radio 4 website. | Can this summer's Labour leadership contest unite the party's warring factions? |
39228792 | When Mrs May took over as prime minister last summer she inherited a Commons majority of 12. That was the Conservatives' margin of victory in the 2015 general election.
When you factor in Sinn Fein MPs, who don't take up their seats, deputy speakers who as a rule don't vote, and changes to the make-up of the Commons over the past 18 months after by-elections it adds up to a working majority of 17.
This is the smallest majority a government has faced a year into office since Labour's Harold Wilson was prime minister in the 1960s.
It should take just nine rebels to overturn it. But this doesn't explain the whole situation when it comes to Brexit.
It's not just Conservative MPs who will support the government on Article 50. Joining them are the DUP, the only party in the Commons, aside from UKIP who officially backed Brexit.
Labour has a splinter group of 10 MPs who advocated a leave vote. Six of them - Frank Field, Kelvin Hopkins, Kate Hoey, John Mann, Graham Stringer and Gisela Stuart - generally support the government in votes on Brexit.
They are also joined by the UUP, who are closely aligned to the Conservatives, and UKIP's sole MP Douglas Carswell.
This inflates Theresa May's majority to around 50 and gives her a "Brexit firewall" with much greater room for manoeuvre in the event of a rebellion within her own party.
If all the pro-Brexit MPs back the government in the crucial vote on the Article 50 bill later, it would take a much bigger rebellion of 26 Conservatives to block Brexit legislation.
The number of rebels at earlier stages of the bill was much smaller than that. So Mrs May looks likely to get the bill formally triggering Brexit into law unamended with the support of MPs from outside the ranks of her own party, giving her the free hand to negotiate Britain's exit from the EU. | Prime Minister Theresa May faces a battle to get Brexit through Parliament - but votes from non-Conservative MPs who support leaving the EU should help her swing it. |
38500195 | The chief veterinary officer for Wales confirmed the H5N8 infections in a back yard in Pontyberem on Tuesday - after the birds had been culled.
It is the same strain of the virus found in an infected wild duck in Llanelli and turkeys in Lincolnshire.
A 3km (1.8 mile) protection zone and 10km (6.2 mile) surveillance zone have been put in place around the premises.
It comes on the same day the National Welsh Poultry Weekend in Pembrokeshire was cancelled over avian flu fears.
Public Health Wales has said the risk to public health was "very low" with the Food Standards Agency having also said avian flu does not pose a food safety risk for UK consumers.
Thoroughly cooked poultry and poultry products, including eggs, are safe to eat.
The Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs Lesley Griffiths said: "It serves to reinforce the need for all bird keepers, particularly back yard flock keepers, to adhere to the requirements set out in the Prevention Zone, remain vigilant for signs of disease and practice good biosecurity at all times."
National Farmers Union Cymru president Stephen James said it remained in "close dialogue" with the Welsh Government on the issue and it was keeping members informed with the latest information.
The chief veterinary officer, Prof Christianne Glossop, said it was "extremely important" bird keepers practiced the "highest levels of biosecurity".
"Even when birds are housed, there remains a risk of infection and keepers of poultry and other captive birds should ensure every effort is made to prevent contact with wild birds.
"The movement of poultry should be minimized, and clothing and equipment should always be disinfected," she added.
Members of the public have been encouraged to report dead wild waterfowl or gulls, or five or more dead wild birds of other species in the same location. | Chickens and ducks have been found with avian flu at a property in Carmarthenshire. |
38906808 | The female attacker made off with the bag on the footpath between Crimon Place at St Mary's Cathedral and Huntly Street on Monday at about 15:00.
The assailant was described as white, in her mid-20s, 5ft 3in to 5ft 6in tall, and slim.
She had red/ginger hair tied back in a ponytail and spoke with a local accent.
She was wearing a green jacket, blue jeans with holes in both knees, and ankle boots.
Det Sgt Jamie Sherlock said: "This is an attack on a lone woman who had been at the shops in Aberdeen. She was pulled to the ground in the incident and had her bag its contents taken from her.
"We are appealing for anyone who recognises the description given and saw the woman in the area to contact us as soon as possible." | A 75-year-old woman was pulled to the ground when a robber grabbed her bag in Aberdeen city centre. |
40527062 | Aldred joined Blackpool from Accrington on an initial loan deal in February 2015 and went on to make 103 appearances for the club.
The 26-year-old featured in 52 games last season as Blackpool won promotion from League Two.
"He's strong, physical and a leader and a great communicator both on and off the pitch," manager Lee Clark said.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page. | Bury have signed defender Tom Aldred on a two-year contract after he turned down a new deal with Blackpool. |
28896348 | He warned of their "apocalyptic, end-of-days strategic vision", argued that they pose "an imminent threat to every interest we have, whether it's in Iraq or anywhere else", and depicted them as "beyond anything that we've seen". Is this reckless threat inflation, or is Mr Hagel correct?
The US has faced a variety of effective militant groups in the past, a number of which have successfully targeted American interests.
The most significant of these has been al-Qaeda, which bombed three US embassies in 1998, a US warship in 2000, and attacked New York and Washington with hijacked aircraft in 2001. Over the past decade, al-Qaeda's regional allies have killed numerous other Americans, mostly in war zones. One such ally, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, has successfully placed bombs on US-bound aircraft, forcing heightened airport security as recently as July 2013.
By contrast, IS has never come close to attacking the US homeland and has only claimed one American life, journalist James Foley. A Frenchman who fought with IS did succeed in killing four people at Brussels' Jewish Museum in May. But, as my RUSI colleague Raffaello Pantucci observes, there is no evidence that this, or four other disrupted plots, were directed by IS.
The potential return of thousands of European citizens from IS ranks does pose a serious challenge to European intelligence agencies and police forces, even if only a tiny proportion of those returnees are inclined to and capable of conducting attacks.
But this is not a new problem. As early as November 2013, terrorism expert Thomas Hegghammer pointed out that were witnessing "the largest European Muslim foreign fighter contingent to any conflict in modern history".
Unless Mr Hagel has secret intelligence to the contrary, it therefore seems wildly implausible that IS presents, as he put it, an "imminent threat to every interest… anywhere".
Even within Iraq, the threat to US forces in Irbil and Baghdad is modest. Mr Hagel's use of the word "imminent" was probably intended to establish a legal rationale for forthcoming US military strikes, and address US domestic concern over Mr Foley's murder.
On the other hand, it should be recognized that IS is one of the most powerful jihadist movements in modern history. The group possesses an estimated 10,000-17,000 fighters, including an estimated 2,000 Europeans, and billions of dollars, according to the French foreign minister.
They control 35,000 square miles of territory across two countries, on which they operate advanced US military equipment seized from the Iraqi army. In places, they enjoy the support of former Iraqi officers once loyal to Saddam Hussein and some Sunni tribes.
IS should therefore be understood not merely as a terrorist group, but as a hybrid revolutionary movement with nation-building aspirations and conventional armed forces. This makes them vulnerable - they have more material infrastructure and capabilities to target than, say, al-Qaeda - but also more resilient.
In this sense, it is reasonable for Mr Hagel to depict IS as unprecedented. Other fundamentalist groups that controlled states, such as the Taliban in Afghanistan, have been relatively parochial movements far less extreme in their methods and objectives.
The US has faced far more powerful state adversaries. The Soviet Union, for instance, killed many more people under its control than IS has done and could have inflicted far greater damage on the US had it chosen to do so. But Moscow could be deterred, whereas the "apocalyptic" ideology of IS is perceived as incapable of long-term coexistence or compromise.
Very few groups have combined this territorial control, state-like structure, and avowed intention to attack the West. Mr Hagel, despite his hyperbole, has a point. | US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel has used a remarkable set of words to describe the militants of Islamic State (IS). |
33947857 | Media playback is unsupported on your device
16 August 2015 Last updated at 08:53 BST
An emergency rescue helicopter lifted him to safety from the storm drain he was sheltering in as flames burned all around him.
Pilots had to fly through thick smoke to swoop in and pick him up.
Captain Scott Dettorre, from Ventura County Fire, said: "What made this challenging was we had the brush fire going... Visually it was a challenge for these pilots to locate and get this patient out." | A driver in California has had a very lucky escape after his truck crashed off a road and fell 100m down a ravine, before starting a bush fire. |
35423606 | Damian O'Hagan, 60, of Homestall Road in Norris Green, Liverpool, was jailed for 18 months after admitting VAT fraud at Liverpool Crown Court.
Checks by HM Revenue and Customs found O'Hagan had kept more than £90,000 of VAT which he had charged a client.
O'Hagan attempted to cover up his crime by trying to become VAT-registered.
The director of Foodservice Interim Management Limited, who owed £91,761 in VAT, moved to Benidorm in January 2015 to run a bar but could not resist the lure of the Toffees.
He was arrested as he tried to enter Goodison Park ahead of Everton's 2-0 defeat against Manchester City on 23 August 2015.
Sandra Smith, assistant director of the HMRC's fraud investigation service, said: "O'Hagan knew his business transactions were under scrutiny and the game was up. This was one match he wasn't going to win.
"He chose to pocket the VAT he had collected from his client at the expense of UK taxpayers and because of his dishonesty he has been jailed."
O'Hagan also faces a full confiscation hearing to recover the VAT. | A tax cheat who fled to Spain before returning home to watch his beloved Everton play was arrested at the stadium turnstiles, a court has heard. |
32769608 | Teenager Charlotte Brown cleared 3.5m and was joined on the podium in Austin by her guide dog Vador.
Brown developed cataracts at 16 weeks and had artificial lenses inserted, but her vision began to worsen aged 11 and she is now blind with only a "jigsaw puzzle" of light and dark shades.
"This story really wasn't about me," said the 17-year-old.
"It was about everybody that struggles with something."
The Emory Rains student has pursued a medal for the past two years, finishing eighth and then fourth before taking third as a high school senior on Saturday.
Brown first took up pole vaulting, which is not a Paralympic sport, in seventh grade because she wanted something a little "dangerous and exciting".
She counts the seven steps of her left foot on her approach, listening for the sound of a faint beeper placed on the mat that tells her when to plant the pole and push up.
"It took me three years to get on the podium, and I finally did it," added Brown, who is heading to university at Purdue on an academic scholarship.
"If I could send a message to anybody, it's not about pole vaulting and it's not about track. It's about finding something that makes you happy despite whatever obstacles are in your way." | A blind pole vaulter has realised her dream by winning a bronze medal in the Texas state high school championships. |
40014636 | Energy ministers from Opec, the oil exporters' group, are meeting at their headquarters in Vienna to do something about it.
They will be joined by delegates from some oil suppliers outside the group.
On the agenda: whether to extend the oil production curbs agreed last year that are due to expire next month.
There is widespread support in the group for taking this step, and members could also discuss reducing the ceiling on oil output even further.
The formal meeting happens on Thursday but key bilateral talks will take place in Vienna hotels ahead of the official gathering.
Two key players have already agreed that they want to extend the existing limit until March next year: Opec's biggest producer, Saudi Arabia, and Russia, the biggest exporter outside the organisation.
The problem for Opec and other oil exporters started almost three years ago, when the price of oil began to slide.
North Sea Brent crude oil, which is widely used as a price benchmark, hit a high of around $115 (£88) a barrel in June 2014 but by the end of the year it was half that amount.
While Opec members may not sell Brent crude, the prices they get for their oil do move in parallel to this benchmark.
And it got worse still from OPEC's perspective; in January 2016 the price of Brent fell below $28 a barrel.
Since then it has rebounded, but has not got much beyond the mid-$50s per barrel.
That partial recovery has taken some of the strain off Opec members' finances. Many have also responded with cuts to government spending.
But they could really do with a stronger price recovery.
To take one example; last year Saudi Arabia had a deficit in the government's finances equivalent to 17% of national income. This year the IMF projects it will be 10%.
It's a substantial improvement but still far too high for the long term.
Surpluses generated in times of higher prices in the past mean the Saudis do not, however, have an imminent problem of unmanageable government debt.
What Opec and a group of other oil exporting countries including Russia have already done is cut back production in an effort to boost prices. They agreed that last December.
The reduction was almost 1.8 million barrels per day - equivalent to about 2% of global oil production.
Often in the past Opec countries have agreed to cut production but failed to comply with their own commitments. The temptation is for individual countries to cheat and sell more while hoping that others will cut production and push prices higher for all.
This time, however, Opec discipline has been remarkably strong. The International Energy Agency (IEA) a rich countries' watchdog, estimates compliance with the restraints is at more than 95%.
That said, the agreement has not been very effective. Today the price is actually a few dollars less than it was on the day the deal was done. Without the cuts, though oil might have been even cheaper.
OPEC members do have a relatively new problem: the American shale oil industry. It has grown from very little 10 years ago, to become a major player.
In fact it made an important contribution to the abundant supplies of crude oil that were behind the price fall that began in 2014. In 2005, US crude oil production covered a third of the country's needs, now the figure is more than 60%.
In the early stages of the price fall Saudi Arabia appeared to be willing to live with the decline in the hope that it would put pressure on US shale producers and force many out of business.
It was uncomfortable for America's oil industry but it proved to be more resilient than the Saudis probably expected, and their producers were very effective at reducing costs.
Total US oil production did decline in 2016, but it is rebounding this year.
Opec's production cuts have made space for other producers in non-member countries and the recovery in prices from their lows of early 2016 has eased the financial pressure.
One manifestation of the abundant supply is the fact that stocks of crude oil held by refineries and governments are well above normal levels; a new historical high in the rich countries in March, according to the IEA.
The objective shared by Opec and Russia is to get stocks down to the average level of the last five years.
The signs are that Opec members are mostly well disposed to continuing the cuts beyond next month's planned expiry. There may well be some debate about how long to extend them, and there have been reports that some would like to make the cuts deeper.
Outside Opec, Russia is in agreement but Kazakhstan wants to increase production, while others have been holding discussions with Opec countries.
Assuming they do take extend the production limits, what will be the impact on oil prices?
They may stay towards the upper end of the recent range - but it will take a while for those stocks of crude oil to come down to levels that could support a stronger rally.
Opec's likely action could certainly ensure that prices don't take a renewed dive but the prospect of a powerful surge in prices is not strong.
There is a new complication for the producers' calculations. President Trump's budget plan includes a proposal to sell half the oil in the US government's emergency reserves, the strategic petroleum reserve, starting from the next financial year.
It is just a proposal at this stage but it has still been enough to move international oil prices down.
Yet in the longer term, the weakness of oil prices does perhaps contain the seeds of its own reversal.
The low prices have undermined investment in new production capacity in the last two years, which in turn means that there could be a supply crunch. The IEA has warned this could come sometime after 2020.
In the even longer term, the big question for Opec is whether a shift away from oil-based transport fuels - in favour of electrically-powered vehicles, for example - will cast a shadow over the viability of their natural resources. | Crude oil is too cheap for the taste of many producers. |
39949232 | It hopes the move will lead to gathering more evidence, changing the behaviour of offenders and prevent an increase in violence at a scene.
The cameras should allow more time on the beat and reduce paperwork, while they can also be used to investigate complaints against officers.
It would be one of the largest body camera roll-outs outside of London's Metropolitan Police.
Assistant chief constable Richard Lewis said: "The technology is very exciting and will assist officers and staff in doing their jobs, it will ensure that we are more accountable to the public that we serve and in turn build trust with our communities.
"This will be one of the largest deployment of body worn video cameras to police officers outside of the Metropolitan Police with all uniform frontline officers being personally equipped with devices and all our PCSOs." | South Wales Police has become the last Welsh force to introduce body cameras. |
40612129 | Wiser heads are advising new members to enjoy the relative quiet while they can, on the expectation that Brexit hostilities will commence when they return in September, and the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill is debated.
They expect long sittings, knife-edge votes, ambushes and guerrilla warfare at every turn.
The change of pace could be pretty startling for newcomers who have only experienced the torpid pace of this short post-election interlude - they will move from gentle ambling to a cross-country yomp under fire.
In the meantime, the lesson of these initial few weeks is that even apparently anodyne general debates, in Westminster Hall as well as in the chamber, can be used to put pressure on the government, as this week's Euratom debate has demonstrated.
A government with no majority is always vulnerable and can't ignore its backbenchers, and with the prospect of a new election at any moment, even the most loyal will be tempted to push some constituency cause.
Here's my rundown of the week ahead....
The Commons day opens (2.30 pm) with Communities and Local Government questions, which will be followed by any urgent questions or ministerial statements. One subject that may be raised is the final confirmation of the HS2 route through South Yorkshire, which is expected from the Department for Transport ahead of the parliamentary recess.
Local press reports suggest that the unpopular so-called "M18" route will be announced in a written ministerial statement. The proposals would then go to consultation.
Then comes the emergency debate on the scheduling of parliamentary business, which Labour's shadow leader of the Commons, Valerie Vaz, applied for, complaining that since the Queen's Speech there had only been seven votes in the Commons, and no Opposition debates.
This could provide an opportunity for a number of MPs to raise other complaints about the way Commons business is being handled - one issue is the number of Commons days allocated to debate private members' bills across what the government intends will be a two-year parliamentary session.
Essentially there will be one year's ration of private members' bills across a two-year period, and there may be an attempt to amend the government's procedural motion setting that out, which could attract support from some rebel Conservatives. Watch this space.
Following on from Wednesday's Westminster Hall debate on abuse directed at candidates during the general election, there will be a full-dress debate in the Commons chamber.
The adjournment debate is on acid attacks - former minister Stephen Timms is worried about the increase in the level of crime involving acid (since 2010 there have been 415 attacks in Newham) and wants to raise the issue after an attack in his constituency.
He wants to highlight the level of alarm in his community and will be pressing the government to introduce restrictions on the purchase and carrying of acid, in line with those that already exist for knives.
In the Lords (2.30 pm) questions to ministers include one from Labour's Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on lifting the ban on fox hunting.
The main debates are on the report from the European Union Committee Brexit: UK-EU movement of people and the report from the Economic Affairs Committee The Price of Power: Reforming the Electricity Market.
In the Commons (at 11.30am), MPs open with Treasury questions. Look out for the debut of the new select committee chair, Nicky Morgan. That is followed (barring any statements or UQs) by a general debate on drugs policy.
In Westminster Hall, the debates include: Anglo-Polish relations (9.30am-11am) led by the Conservative Daniel Kawczynski; the risk to UK aviation from drones, led by the Conservative Jeremy Lefroy, who warns that the risks posed by drones to aviation are increasing all the time, as the recent closure of runways at Gatwick showed. He is calling for regulation and effective 'electronic fencing' to protect civil and military aircraft.
In the afternoon sitting, the subjects include the future of the taxi trade (2.30pm-4pm) - the Labour MP Wes Streeting, who chairs the all-party group on taxis, will lead a discussion of its new report on the future of the taxi trade, which highlights inconsistent licensing practices between different local councils and calls for new powers for elected mayors to control the number of private hire vehicles, to control pollution and protect public safety.
Then, (4pm-4.30 pm) the subject is "catfishing and social media" - led by Labour's Ann Coffey. Catfishing is when someone creates fake profiles on social media sites to trick people into thinking they are somebody else. It is most common on social media and dating apps like Tinder. The final debate (4.30pm-5.30pm) is on British prisoners in Iran. The Labour MP Tulip Siddiq will raise the case of her constituent Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe who has been held in an Iranian prison since April 2016, under conditions she describes as "torture".
In the Lords (2.30 pm), question time is followed by a debate on a report from the European Union Committee on Brexit: trade in goods.
Commons business opens (11.30 am) with Scottish questions, followed at noon by the final Prime Minister's Questions before the summer break.
Then the MPs who've won places in the annual private members' bill ballot will present their chosen bills - this year's list was topped by the Labour MP Chris Bryant who wants to make attacks on emergency workers such as police, fire and ambulance crews an aggravated offence. In the 2016/17 session, five bills from the private members' ballot became law.
The main event is a general debate on Brexit and sanctions.
In Westminster Hall, the opening debate (9.30am) is on Wales and the Queen's Speech, led by Labour's Jo Stevens. The long afternoon debate (2.30pm- 4 pm) is led by the new Conservative MP Leo Docherty, a former Army officer and defence expert. His chosen subject is the future shape of the armed forces. He will certainly argue that the army, in particular, needs to be bigger, but his main point will be the need to reshape the structure of the armed forces to meet new threats, and for the government to be smarter and more strategic in its deployments in future.
In the Lords (3pm), there will be another hereditary by election following the retirement of Lord Walpole, a crossbench hereditary peer - 31 crossbench peers will choose between 10 candidates.
The day's main legislating is on the detail of the Financial Guidance and Claims Bill, which aims to ensure people can access free and impartial money guidance, pensions guidance and debt advice. It would set up a Single Financial Guidance Body.
That is followed by a short debate on a new report by the All Party Group on refugees, Refugees Welcome? The Experience of New Refugees in the UK.
Its the final day before summer, when our parliamentarians are allowed to bring in games - or, alternatively, take part in the final debates of term. They open (9.30 am) with Environment, Food and Rural Affairs questions followed at 10.10am by mini question times for the MPs who speak on behalf of the Church Commissioners, the House of Commons Commission, the Public Accounts Commission and the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission.
Presentation bills - which come behind the winners of the private members bill ballot in the parliamentary pecking order - will be unveiled today....look out for one from Labour's David Hanson to abolish the system of by-elections to top up the contingent of 92 hereditary peers which remains in the House of Lords.
This will be his second attempt to get that through.
The main event will be the recess adjournment debate, which gives MPs the chance to make a subject on any subject they fancy.
(Incidentally, nominations close at 4pm for candidates for the Lib Dem leadership - will anyone run against Vince Cable?)
In the Lords from 11am, the last day of term begins with the introduction of a new boy...Lord Duncan of Springbank, the Conservative candidate who narrowly failed to unseat the SNP's Pete Wishart and win a Commons seat, in the fierce election battle in Perth and North Perthshire, which he lost by just 21 votes. The appointment was criticised by the Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon who tweeted; This should not be allowed. Rejected by the voters - but installed in government anyway, via the unelected House of Lords.
Question time includes the Labour peer Lord Campbell-Savours asking about the introduction of ID cards to contribute to the maintenance of security.
Then peers debate the transport needs of remote island communities in England, and the implications of leaving Euratom, and ensuring the continued uninterrupted cross-border supply of nuclear materials, including for medical use, post-Brexit.
Friday 21 July is the first day of the summer recess - barring an emergency big enough to prompt a recall, Parliament will next sit on Tuesday 5 September. | It's the final four days of Parliament before the summer recess, with not all that much to occupy honourable members and noble lords, although Labour have succeeded in engineering an emergency debate to complain about the way the Commons has been managed, since the election. |
37323355 | The game was organised after Thursday's scheduled match at Bready was called off without a ball being bowled.
The match in Belfast did get underway, with Cecelia Joyce and debutant Meg Kendal making a positive start before play was halted.
The pair shared an unbeaten opening stand of 68 runs in 18 overs.
Joyce hit five fours in her 37 not out, while Kendal found the boundary twice in her 26 not out.
Ireland's Lucy O'Reilly did not make it on to the field as she made her 50th international appearance aged just 16.
The teams will meet again on Saturday (10:30 BST) at the same venue in the final game of the series. | Ireland and Bangladesh were thwarted by the weather again on Friday when their rearranged one-day international at Shaw's Bridge had to be abandoned. |
36158695 | At this year's Moscow International Security Conference, the official theme is fighting terrorism.
But there is an unofficial theme, too - blaming the West.
A string of Russian military figures and experts have accused the US and Nato of causing global insecurity and waging an "information war" against Moscow.
"Terrorism has become the number one problem for all of us," said Russia's Defence Minister, Sergey Shoygu.
He promptly went on to accuse the US and Nato of "building up military infrastructure close to Russia's borders and carrying out dangerous plans for missile defence".
Speaking at the conference, the Chief of Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, said the rise of terrorism was partly the result of "attempts to transfer the values of Western democracy to countries with their own mentality, spiritual values and traditions... this had exploded North Africa and the Middle East".
When I ask Veronika Krasheninnikova, a member of the Russian Public Chamber, who she views as the greatest threat in the world today, she points to Washington.
"The biggest threat is the adventurous military and political policy of some countries, like the US and its close allies, in the Middle East," she tells me.
Putin creates new National Guard in Russia 'to fight terrorism'
Putin warns of 'foreign foes'
West faces up to Putin aggression
Another Cold War?
Russia and Syria 'weaponising' migration
Mr Shoygu described the security situation in Europe as "deplorable".
But neither he nor any other Russian official has acknowledged Moscow's annexation of Crimea is in any way responsible for this state of affairs.
Crimea is not on the conference agenda.
"For the Russian leadership, the question of Crimea is now closed," Russia's ambassador to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Alexander Lukashevich, tells me.
The message from Moscow is clear - Russia wants improved relations with the West, but the West must accept Russia as it is.
"One of the common themes of this conference is that we need to rethink issues, rethink the security environment, rethink our relationship," says Richard Weitz, from US think tank the Hudson Institute.
"But when you get specific, what they're saying is that the West needs to rethink its approach to Russia."
But, if Russia is serious about improving ties with the West, doesn't it take two to tango? Ms Krasheninnikova is in no mood to share the dance-floor.
"It takes two to tango, but it takes one to start a war," she tells me. "It takes one country to bomb other countries such as Libya."
"The West would argue, 'It takes one country to annex Crimea,'" I respond.
"Wasn't what Russia did in Crimea a watershed moment for international security?"
"It wasn't Russia that annexed Crimea," Ms Krasheninnikova replies.
"It was Crimea that ran away from the Kiev regime after a state coup."
When it comes to security issues, it often feels as if Russia and the West are talking past each other. But some delegates here sense cause for optimism.
"The Russians are always blaming the Americans, of course, and we have a lot of reasons to blame Russia, as well, for example on Crimea," says August Henning, former director of Germany's Federal Intelligence Agency.
"But my impression is that there is more openness in Russia to go ahead and find solutions.
"We should do this in a more discreet manner, not publicly - that would be not be very helpful.
Mr Henning says a solution to the question of Crimea is possible.
"I have made some proposals privately, even on Crimea," he tells me.
"I have no doubt the majority of the population of Crimea voted for being part of Russia.
"Nevertheless, the way it happened is not acceptable for us.
"My idea is to try to establish a free trade zone in Crimea, we should try to have a [kind of] Hong Kong, for example, in consensus with Ukraine, with the West, with the European Union.
"We need more [imagination] for this question. Now is not the time, but there may be an opportunity in the future." | A conference often has an official theme or issue that features in all the panel discussions and debates. |
36679403 | Troon is the only club on the Open rota to have a male-only membership policy.
A majority is needed to remove the ban, with the club reporting in June that "over three quarters of the members" supported admitting female members.
Muirfield still has a ban on female members and has been told by the governing body they cannot stage another Open until it is removed.
That left Troon as the only club on the Open that has men-only membership after Royal St George's, which hosted the Open in 2011, voted last year to end its 128-year ban on female members.
The club consulted members in May over the its men-only policy but brought forward a vote on the issue following Muirfield's ban.
Muirfield said in June it wanted to hold a fresh ballot on admitting female members before the end of the year.
The 145th Open Championship will begin on 14 July. | Royal Troon, the host of the 2016 Open Championship, will vote on allowing women members on Friday. |
28790742 | Warwick Medical School is leading the trial after concerns adrenaline, used to restart the heart, could cause brain damage and even death.
West Midlands Ambulance Service said the work could ultimately save "hundreds of patients".
The trial, involving some 8,000 patients, will start in the autumn.
It will see ambulance staff in the West Midlands, London, Wales, and on the south coast and north-east of England inject roughly half of the the patients with adrenaline and the others with a salt solution placebo.
Patients, however, will not be able to give consent as they will be unconscious, prompting criticism from some experts.
Paramedics and other clinical staff will also be unaware which patients received the placebo.
West Midlands Ambulance Service medical director Dr Andy Carson said: "Although adrenaline has been used for many years in cardiac arrest management, there is growing evidence that it may result in poorer outcomes for patients, hence the trial."
He said developments in technology suggested the drug "may cause more harm than good".
The British Heart Foundation has also supported the study.
Ken Timmis, chair of the Wolverhampton Coronary Aftercare Support Group, said he was confident his members would support any project that could ultimately "lead to better survival rates".
About 50,000 people a year in the UK suffer a cardiac arrest, according to Warwick Medical School, but resuscitation is successful in just one in four cases.
Dr Carson said defibrillation and CPR would be used as normal, while the trial would not affect patients suffering from conditions such as anaphylaxis.
He said patients suffering heart attacks would not be affected as adrenaline is not used as part of the treatment. | A study that will see some of its patients suffering cardiac arrest given a dummy drug has been backed by West Midlands Ambulance Service. |
36478526 | The building is to close for a two-year refurbishment after being taken over by the Willow Tea Rooms Trust in 2014.
The Willow Tea Rooms inside, however, is a separate business and will not re-open there when the revamp is complete.
Its owner, Anne Mulhern, confirmed she would be recreating the Tea Rooms, which she has run since 1983, inside the nearby Watt Brothers store.
The Sauchiehall Street building and interiors were designed by Rennie Mackintosh and built in 1903 for Kate Cranston, who ran several tearooms in the city.
Ms Mulhern transformed the Tea Rooms back to their original use in 1983 after the building had been used as a retail unit.
She did not own the building, however, which was acquired by the Willow Tea Rooms Trust in 2014.
The trust now aims to close the building on 22 June for a two-year refurbishment which aims to restore the structure to its former glory.
Ms Mulhern, who also operates the Willow Tea Rooms on Buchanan Street, said it was necessary to move to secure her business.
"When we found out that the repairs to our existing building meant that we would have to close for two years, we were devastated," she said.
"We still have the Willow Tea Rooms in Buchanan Street but were keen to open near Sauchiehall Street and secure the jobs of our fantastic staff.
"It's great that we can remain open with the same staff, same menu, same interiors and same great waitress service - just a few blocks down the street."
Ms Mulhern said the Sauchiehall Street Willow Tea Rooms would be recreated on the third-floor of the nearby Watt Brothers department store.
It is hoped that the new premises will be ready for customers in July.
Watt Brothers, which has operated as a family-run business in Glasgow since 1915, is located at the corner of Sauchiehall Street and Hope Street.
Managing director Willie Watt said the addition of the Willow Tea Rooms to the Glasgow store would work for both businesses.
He said: "We are a company proud of its history and we're particularly pleased to be working with Anne and her team in including a high-quality, prestige tea room which will complement both our business and the Willow Team Rooms' business which pays tribute to one of our city's great architects.
"What could be more appealing for shoppers than a stop-off in our store where they can enjoy a cuppa and some fine food?" | Glasgow's Willow Tea Rooms is to leave its Charles Rennie Mackintosh designed building in Sauchiehall Street. |
38838645 | She had posted a screengrab of a message she received which featured images mocking her 14-year-old son, Harvey, who is blind.
The man, 19, from Newick, near Lewes, was arrested on suspicion of racially or religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress.
He has been released on bail until 25 February, Sussex Police said.
More news from Sussex here | A man has been arrested after offensive messages were posted on Twitter about TV star Katie Price's disabled son. |
32242995 | The crash happened at the junction of Evesham Road and Luddington Road at about 15:50 BST.
West Midlands Ambulance Service said crews arrived to find the car upside down and partially submerged in a brook.
It took about 40 minutes to free the woman, in her 70s, who escaped with only minor injuries.
She was taken to Warwick Hospital for further checks. | A motorist has been rescued after her car crashed over a bridge and plunged into a brook in Stratford-upon-Avon. |
37222854 | David Drury said the car, which had been parked on a zebra crossing, mounted the pavement, lifting him on to the bonnet.
Police said no-one had been arrested, despite the warden's body-worn camera capturing images of the attacker.
Mr Drury has been off work injured since the hit-and-run on the Isle of Sheppey on 8 July.
He said he was helping a colleague issue a ticket on a car parked on zigzag lines when the "driver got into the vehicle and went into me".
"I heard the accelerator go, didn't look up and didn't realise he was going to come towards me.
"He went straight into me, mounted the pavement and drove into me. I went on to the bonnet and crashed down to the side of the pavement."
Mr Drury, who suffered neck and shoulder damage, said in six years as a traffic warden he had been "pushed over a few times" and receives "verbal abuse every day".
Kent Police said enquiries into the attack were ongoing. | A traffic warden was mown down by a motorist who had just been given a parking ticket. |
38481521 | A gunman opened fire in Reina nightclub at about 01:30 local time (22:30 GMT), as revellers marked the new year.
Suleyman Soylu said efforts were continuing to find the attacker, who was believed to have acted alone.
At least 69 people were being treated in hospital, the minister added. Four were said to be in a serious condition.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the attackers were trying to "create chaos" and pledged to "fight to the end" against terrorism.
Addressing reporters, Mr Soylu said: "A manhunt for the terrorist is under way. Police have launched operations. We hope the attacker will be captured soon."
Only 21 of the victims had been identified, he said. Fifteen or 16 were foreigners, he said, and at least three of the Turkish victims may have been employees at the club.
"This was a massacre, a truly inhuman savagery,'' he said.
Early media reports suggested the attacker may have been wearing a Santa Claus outfit, but newly-obtained CCTV footage shows the suspected attacker in a black coat outside the club.
Mr Soylu said the gunman was wearing a coat and trousers, but "we were informed that he was wearing different clothes inside".
Reina nightclub, in the the Ortakoy area of Istanbul, is an upmarket venue on the banks of the Bosphorus.
Istanbul Governor Vasip Sahin said the attacker killed a policeman and a civilian outside the club before entering and opening fire.
"Before I could understand what was happening, my husband fell on top me,'' the Associated Press news agency quoted Sinem Uyanik, who was inside the club, as saying.
"I had to lift several bodies from (on) top of me before I could get out. It was frightening.''
There were reportedly as many as 700 people in the nightclub at the time of the attack, some of whom jumped into the water to escape.
The Turkish authorities have imposed a media blackout on coverage of the attack, citing security and public order concerns, but it does not extend to official statements.
Some media reports spoke of more than one attacker and Dogan news agency reported that some witnesses claimed the attackers were "speaking Arabic", but there is no confirmation of this.
Despite there being no official statement about who might be behind this brutal attack, the finger of blame is being pointed at the so-called Islamic State.
In the last two years of attacks in Turkey, Kurdish militants have mostly targeted military forces and police, while IS is known to target civilians.
IS leaders have threatened Turkey and called on their followers to carry out attacks inside the country.
Turkey began a ground operation against IS as well as Kurdish groups inside Syria four months ago.
In a statement, President Erdogan condemned those trying to "demoralise our people and create chaos with abominable attacks which target civilians".
"We will retain our cool-headedness as a nation, standing more closely together, and we will never give ground to such dirty games."
US President Barack Obama, who is on holiday in Hawaii, was among the first international leaders to make a statement after being briefed by his team.
"The president expressed condolences for the innocent lives lost, directed his team to offer appropriate assistance to the Turkish authorities, as necessary, and keep him updated as warranted," White House spokesman Eric Schultz said in a statement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the "cynical" murder of civilians. "Our shared duty is to decisively rebuff terrorist aggression," he said in a telegram quoted on the Kremlin website.
Turkey and Russia are working together on efforts to end the fighting in Syria, though they support different sides in the conflict.
Istanbul was already on high alert with some 17,000 police officers on duty in the city, following a string of terror attacks in recent months.
Many were carried out by so-called Islamic State (IS) or Kurdish militants.
Less than a fortnight ago, Russian Ambassador Andrei Karlov was shot dead by off-duty Turkish policeman Mevlut Mert Altintas as he gave a speech in the capital Ankara.
After the shooting, the killer shouted the murder was in revenge for Russian involvement in the conflict in the Syrian city of Aleppo.
10 December: Twin bomb attack outside a football stadium in Istanbul kills 44 people, Kurdish militant group claims responsibility
20 August: Bomb attack on wedding party in Gaziantep kills at least 30 people, IS suspected
30 July: 35 Kurdish fighters try to storm a military base and are killed by the Turkish army
28 June: A gun and bomb attack on Ataturk airport in Istanbul kills 41 people, in an attack blamed on IS militants
13 March: 37 people are killed by Kurdish militants in a suicide car bombing in Ankara
17 February: 28 people die in an attack on a military convoy in Ankara | At least 39 people, including at least 15 foreigners, have been killed in an attack on a nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey's interior minister says. |
28354598 | The Welsh team issued a statement confirming that Michu had "completed a medical earlier today and will now link up with Rafa Benitez's side".
The Spain forward, 28, did not travel to the USA for Swansea's pre-season tour because of the talks with Napoli.
The president of the Italian side, Aurelio de Laurentiis, tweeted a welcome message: "Benvenuto a Michu."
It was understood that the Serie A club wanted Michu on loan, while the Swans were thought to be keen on a permanent deal.
Michu will play in Italy for at least a season, while Napoli may exercise their right to buy during the loan spell.
The Spaniard joined Swansea from Rayo Vallecano for £2.2m during the summer of 2012 and was the club's top scorer with 22 goals in his first full season.
His performances saw him linked with big-money moves, but he extended his stay in south Wales by signing a four-year deal in January 2013.
The former Oviedo and Celta de Vigo player's second season with the Swans was marred by knee and ankle problems and he scored only two goals in 15 starts in the Premier League.
Before the club left for the States, Swansea manager Garry Monk said he planned to hold talks with Michu and wanted the striker to stay.
But former Wales and Swansea winger Leighton James believes the time is right for his former club to sell Michu, even though he has two years remaining of his current contract.
"If he's going to go, then get it sorted," James had previously told BBC Radio Wales Sport.
"Even before he was injured last season he was giving out the impression that he didn't want to be here.
"His price has dropped drastically through his poor form last season and his long-term injury.
"So you can't expect to command the same sort of fee that you could have done 12 months ago after he had such a good season.
"But it doesn't do the club, the players or the manager any good to have this hanging over their heads during pre-season." | Swansea City striker Michu has joined Napoli on a season-long loan with an agreed option to buy. |
36432292 | Mr Weir was speaking during a visit to an Irish language school, his first ministerial visit since taking up office last week.
He met staff and pupils at Coláiste Feirste in west Belfast on Thursday morning.
The DUP minister was also shown a new £15.5m extension at the school.
During the visit, he told the BBC that "no pupil should be disadvantaged by what is on their school badge".
He said he was determined to be a "minister for all" and said that throughout his tenure in office he will "try to treat everyone equally".
Questioned on whether the funding of Irish language schools marked a DUP policy shift, he said there is "always a balance to be struck between what parents demand and what is an efficient use of resources".
The extension is one of 18 major capital projects announced in 2012 and will provide new enhanced sports and teaching facilities.
The £15m investment at Coláiste Feirste is one of 18 major capital projects announced in 2012.
It will result in a new sports hall, changing rooms, new sports pitches, including a full-size 3G Gaelic games pitch, and enhanced teaching facilities.
The visit of Mr Weir was welcomed by school principal Garaí Mac Roibeaird.
He said the visit marked "the start of a new relationship with the new minister".
He added: "We are so glad so early in his term of office that he came out to an Irish medium school."
The school building in west Belfast was originally designed to house 300 pupils and now has 612. | Education Minister Peter Weir has said he will be a minister for all schools and will not give preferential treatment to one sector over another. |
40406396 | It will mean £1bn extra for Northern Ireland over the next two years - but may not trigger new funding for Wales.
Carwyn Jones said the deal "kills the idea of fair funding".
But Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns said the deal was the sort of positive intervention already made through the two Welsh city deals.
The Welsh Government previously demanded "fair funding" for Wales as a result of any deal to give the Conservatives a working majority following the general election.
Sources have told the BBC the agreement may not affect the so-called Barnett formula - which decides how the UK's nations are funded in comparison with each other - because most of the money will go to specific projects rather than general spending.
But a spokesman for the first minister said the equivalent funding under the Barnett formula would result in an extra £1.67bn for Wales over the course of the current parliament.
Mr Jones said: "Today's deal represents a straight bung to keep a weak prime minister and a faltering government in office.
"Only last week we were told that the priority was to 'build a more united country, strengthening the social, economic and cultural bonds between England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales'.
"This deal flies in the face of that commitment and further weakens the UK and as currently drafted all but kills the idea of fair funding for the nations and regions.
"It is outrageous that the prime minister believes she can secure her own political future by throwing money at Northern Ireland whilst completely ignoring the rest of the UK.
"This is a short-term fix which will have far-reaching and destabilising consequences."
The first minister said he had spoken to the Secretary of State for Wales to state his views, saying Mr Cairns "has a duty to fight against this deal and secure additional funding for our country".
Mr Cairns said: "For decades people complained about underfunding for Wales but I resolved that in December with a funding floor agreed with the Welsh Government. Wales currently gets £120 for every £100 spent in England.
"The funding announced today for Northern Ireland - which faces unique circumstances and specific challenges - is the sort of positive intervention that the UK government has already made across different parts of the UK to support economic growth, for example through City Deals for Swansea and Cardiff."
Meanwhile Mr Cairns's predecessor as Welsh Secretary, Stephen Crabb, told the BBC's Daily Politics programme the deal was "the cost of doing business" to keep his party in power.
Labour's former Northern Ireland and Welsh Secretary Lord Hain admitted that Northern Ireland's "conflict-ridden history" made it a special case.
But he condemned "such a nakedly party-interested deal to keep the prime minister in power".
"That's what makes this so toxic to so many people," he said.
Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood called the deal a "bribe", while the party's Westminster leader Liz Saville Roberts said: "Any commitments for Northern Ireland should be matched for Wales.
"If reports that the DUP has secured a £1bn increase in public spending in Northern Ireland are realised, Wales' population share would be around £1.7bn - a substantial boost to the Welsh economy that must be delivered."
A spokesman for UKIP in the assembly said the DUP had "only done what any other party would have done", but added that any increase in funding for Northern Ireland "should be replicated on a pro-rata basis for Wales".
Politically, this deal will be considered a gift for Carwyn Jones, and he has given it both barrels, particularly with his claim that it "kills the idea of fair funding".
The long-held grievance about funding for Wales, compared with Scotland and Northern Ireland, appeared to have gone away after the financial deal put together by the Treasury last year.
This language suggests that grievance will rocket back up the agenda for Labour and Plaid Cymru.
The pressure on the Conservatives will be to persuade people of the merits of the city deals, as these have not only become levers for economic development, but also symbols of the UK Government's investment in Wales. | A deal signed by the Democratic Unionist Party to keep Theresa May in 10 Downing Street is a "straight bung", Wales' first minister has said. |
20389271 | Owners and creditors of the airline have a plan to cut costs and jobs, but it needed approval from eight trade unions representing pilots and cabin crew in Sweden, Denmark and Norway.
The airline said on Monday afternoon it had reached agreement with the one remaining union that had held out.
SAS wants to cut 6,000 jobs.
Agreement with seven of the unions had been reached by early morning on Monday, with the Danish cabin crew union the only remaining obstacle.
"I am very happy that we managed to get a deal," said Helge Thuesen, the union's chairman. "We have stretched ourselves very, very far to reach out to SAS."
SAS said that the Danish pilots' union still needed to obtain approval from one-third of its members, which will be "finalised in the next few days" according to the airline's statement.
Shares in the company jumped by almost a quarter in Monday trading. Even so, they are still down by 98% since their peak in 2007.
"We have successfully negotiated seven of eight collective agreements, which is gratifying," said chief executive Rickard Gustafson.
"But there remains one union and we must have it on board too. That is a condition for carrying out our plan."
An agreement with all eight unions is a precondition for SAS to receive a 3.5bn-Swedish krona ($518m, ??325m) loan from its three government parents and from seven current lenders.
Despite the encouraging turn of events, rating agency Standard & Poor's said on Monday that it had cut SAS's credit rating from B- to CCC+, and placed it on review for further downgrade.
S&P attributed its downgrade decision to the company's weak cashflow position, noting it had debts coming up for repayment over the next 12 months, and risked a loss of confidence by its suppliers.
The rating agency made no reference to the union negotiations, but said it would make a decision about a possible further downgrade in the next three months, once it becomes clear whether SAS's restructuring plan is successful, including the possible knock-on impact on ticket sales.
SAS has struggled to deal with stiff competition from rival discount airlines, despite several attempts to cut its own costs.
The airline, in which the governments of Sweden, Denmark and Norway control key stakes, had set Sunday as a deadline for an agreement with trade unions on wage cuts, as well as changes to pensions and working hours for staff, but talks were extended into Monday.
In the early hours of Monday, at Copenhagen's main airport, negotiators were seen entering and leaving the company's headquarters, taking a break for food and drink.
"It has been a very gruelling process," said Espen Pettersen, deputy head of the main Norwegian cabin union.
"We have made big concessions in this agreement. We are not very happy, but we felt we had no other choice but to sign to secure the jobs and the company."
According to Norwegian press, pilots have agreed to a pay cut equivalent to one month's salary, as well as an 8% increase in their workload.
The company's turnaround plan - dubbed "4 Excellence Next Generation" - aims to reduce costs by 3bn krona per year, and sell 3bn krona of assets.
Fears have been widely expressed in the Scandinavian media that a lack of a deal might prompt the airline to apply for immediate bankruptcy.
SAS has told crews to ensure planes are fully fuelled, so that they are able to return home if necessary.
The carrier has also given cash to staff to ensure they can get access to hotels in the case of a bankruptcy.
SAS has said that it wants to cut staff numbers from 15,000 to 9,000, as well as cut salaries by up to 17%. | The troubled Scandinavian airline SAS has said it has reached a deal with trade unions needed to avoid bankruptcy, following all-night talks. |
36452298 | Chasing 290 to win, the visitors were restricted to 237 despite Michael Klinger's 52 and Benny Howell's late strokeplay with 77.
Glamorgan built their innings on a second-wicket century stand between Will Bragg and Jacques Rudolph.
Gloucestershire's seamers struck back before Graham Wagg's 49 hoisted Glamorgan to a winning total.
Bragg's aggressive 75 off 68 balls got the scoreboard moving well, while Rudolph's cautious 53 was his first half-century off the season.
Matt Taylor, Liam Norwell and Howell all bowled intelligently to restrict Glamorgan's acceleration in the latter stages.
But the target of 290 looked a long way off as Graham Wagg claimed two early wickets and part-time spinner Colin Ingram took two cheap ones in the middle of the innings, including the vital one of Klinger.
Howell's hitting took the game into the closing overs and made it a fine personal performance, before becoming Timm van der Gugten's third wicket.
Glamorgan face Sussex in Cardiff on Wednesday 8 June while Gloucestershire host Middlesex on the same day, still looking for a first win. | Glamorgan began their one-day Cup campaign with a convincing 52-run victory over champions Gloucestershire. |
33634567 | When students from Wolfreton School in Hull set out on their school trip to France, none would have thought their classmate Jessica Lawson would not be returning with them.
The 12-year-old, who died while swimming in a lake, is the latest child to die while on a school trip - but such tragedies are rare.
On average, one child a year dies while on a school trip in the UK according to figures from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents.
"That is still one too many," says Steve Lenartowicz, chairman of the Outdoor Education Advisers Panel, "but there are 114 who die in road transport accidents, 24 die in fires, and we've got to balance the benefits against the risks."
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Lenartowicz said school trips were fundamentally good for children.
"There are so many benefits to young people getting involved in sporting activities in outdoor education.
"Health benefits, benefits to developing their confidence and character and so on and, while obviously one accident is too many, we really need to make sure we understand those benefits as well as the risks."
British school trip tragedies
School excursions are a long established part of a child's education, an exciting chance to get out of the classroom and try something new.
And while legislation is in place to ensure proper risk assessments are done and reduce the chance of harm befalling children, no enterprise is entirely risk free.
John Kileen, from the National Association of Head Teachers, told BBC Radio Humberside: "It's something that you hope will never happen, you hope that the plans you put in place will protect the young people but, as all parents know, accidents happen.
"Obviously, we do not know the full details but sadly each year, even on family holidays, these tragic events happen."
Mr Kileen said extensive assessments were carried out before a trip takes place.
"The schools do not undertake this lightly."
It is "inevitable" some schools will now shy away from such trips, but that would be a mistake, Mr Kileen added.
He said tens of thousands of children go on trips each year.
"These activities create sometimes once-in-a-lifetime and sometimes quite life-changing opportunities for young people.
"When a tragic event like this happens each and every school, head teacher and teacher rethinks why they are doing this because this is not part of their contractual duties.
"They do it because they want to develop the whole child and in some cases this might be the only opportunity for these young people to take part in that sort of activity or go and visit that sort of place.
"But, each time these accidents happen - and you can imagine how people at Wolfreton School are feeling now - they will think 'Is it worth it? Dare we?' and you would understand if the schools and teachers withdrew from that.
"Sadly, in previous tragic events schools have rethought and some schools have withdrawn from taking part in these, but that would be a retrograde step as far as I am concerned." | The death of a child while away with a school raises serious concerns about the risks involved with such ventures - just how safe are school trips? |
20995461 | The tribute will be unveiled on 31 January to mark the 60th anniversary of the flood.
Former Mayor of Mablethorpe and Sutton on Sea Helen Parkhurst helped raised the funds for the memorial as part of her civic engagements in 2010.
The 6ft tall, six tonne Norwegian granite stone will be placed on the seafront.
The flood victims died on 31 January when sea water breached the coastal defences causing widespread damage along England's east coast.
A total of 307 people drowned in England and 24,000 homes were damaged.
Mrs Parkhurst said: "The memorial rock, which is the same type as those used in sea defences, will provide a lasting memorial to those who lost their lives."
Leader of East Lindsey District Council, Councillor Doreen Stephenson, said: "Although 60 years have passed it is important we remember that flood risk is still an issue we face.
"We must ensure we're all prepared should sea waters breach our defences again in such a way."
The memorial will be located by the skate park on North Promenade. | A memorial to 42 victims of the Great Flood in 1953 is being installed in the Lincolnshire resort of Mablethorpe. |
37337989 | HP said the acquisition would help it to "disrupt and reinvent" the $55bn copier industry, a segment that "hasn't innovated in decades".
It is buying a big printing presence in Asia, as well as Samsung's laser printing technology and patents.
The deal comes days after HP's sister company sold its software business to rising UK tech champion Micro Focus.
Hewlett-Packard split into two businesses last year: HP Inc, which focuses on printers and computers; and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which sold its software business to focus on data storage.
"When we became a separate company just 10 months ago, it enabled us to become nimble and focus on accelerating growth and reinventing industries," said Dion Weisler, chief executive of HP Inc.
HP Inc said: "Copiers are outdated, complicated machines with dozens of replaceable parts requiring inefficient service and maintenance agreements."
It added that customers were frequently frustrated with broken copiers and the deal would help HP invest in better technology.
Samsung's printer business made $1.4bn in revenue last year and includes more than 6,500 printing patents as well as nearly 1,300 staff with expertise in laser printer technology.
Meanwhile, shares in Samsung fell 9% after it urged customers to hand in Galaxy Note 7 phones as they risk exploding. | US computer giant HP has struck a deal to take over Samsung's $1bn (£750m) printer business. |
30826758 | 15 January 2015 Last updated at 08:11 GMT
Snow fell on Tuesday and Wednesday, mostly across parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland.
More than 200 schools are closed across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. | Wintry weather is sweeping through parts of the UK and warnings of high winds for much of the west and north are still in place. |
12126300 | She was also the last of the fabled Mitford sisters, whose doings fascinated - and sometimes scandalised - society in the 1940s.
Deborah had a refreshingly homespun outlook on life, unlike Hitler's acolyte Unity, left-wing polemicist Jessica and Diana - second wife of British fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley.
Nicknamed the "housewife duchess", she made Chatsworth one of the most successful and profitable stately homes in England.
The Honourable Deborah Vivien Freeman-Mitford was born on 31 March 1920, the sixth daughter of the 2nd Baron Redesdale.
The Mitfords' childhood, immortalised in her sister Nancy's novels, The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate, was the quintessence of British eccentricity.
Her parents made a poor job of hiding their disappointment that Deborah hadn't been born a boy, leaving their son Thomas the only male in the brood.
Their father disapproved of educating girls, famously insisting that hockey would make their ankles fat, so Deborah spent most of her formative years skating and hunting.
She was brought up at the Mitford home in the Oxfordshire village of Swinbrook and was distraught when the family moved in 1936.
Her sister Unity's infatuation with Hitler saw the young Deborah invited to tea with the German dictator in Berlin, although the visit made little impression on her.
"If you sat in a room with Churchill," she later recalled, "you were aware of this tremendous charisma. Kennedy had it too. But Hitler didn't - not to me anyway."
A year later she met the young John F Kennedy and became close friends with the future US president.
She never shared the fascist inclinations of Unity and Diana or the leanings of Jessica, who became a communist.
She was closest to Diana, whom she adored. "Their politics," she once said, "were nothing to do with me."
Having studied at the Cordon Bleu cookery school in Paris, she married Andrew Cavendish in 1941.
The second son of the 10th Duke of Devonshire, he was then an officer in the Coldstream Guards and a noted amateur jockey.
"If it wasn't love at first sight, it was certainly attraction at first sight," she later wrote.
He unexpectedly became heir to the Devonshire estate after his elder brother, William - who had married John F Kennedy's sister, Kathleen - was killed by a German sniper in Belgium.
She suffered heartbreak when her first child, born prematurely, died within hours in 1941. She would later lose two more children in the same way.
When her husband's father died in 1950, aged just 55, he left a vast estate and huge death duties, which would not have been due had he survived for another four months.
The new duke and his duchess took up their inheritance and the obligations that came with it, including a £7m tax bill.
Against all the odds, the Devonshire estates remained remarkably intact, though Hardwick Hall was given to the National Trust.
And more than 50,000 acres of land, and a tranche of Old Masters - including Holbein's portrait of Henry VIII - had to be sold to meet the death duties.
A huge amount of work had to be done in the main house before the duchess and her husband, who had been living in Edensor House on the estate, finally moved to live in Chatsworth in 1959.
Parts of the house had been opened to the public in 1949 but a decision was taken to expand this business to raise the huge sums necessary to maintain the property.
The duchess became the driving force behind many of the enterprises such as the farm shop, gift shop and restaurant.
She set up the Farmyard in 1973 to show city children where their food came from, an idea that was way ahead of its time.
She also marketed her own food brand and opened a cookery school and furniture workshop as well as a number of highly regarded hotels.
"To me, the most fascinating part of retailing," she once said, "is seeing what people want, and to be able to up the taste a bit, instead of dumbing it down."
In 1974, with £21m raised by the sale of Poussin's Holy Family, the Devonshires set up the Chatsworth Trust, securing the house's future as home to arguably the greatest private art collection in the UK.
Filled to the brim with works by Rembrandt, van Dyck, Lucien Freud and boasting Canova's bust of Napoleon, the estate now pays its way.
The marriage remained a happy one, despite the duke's serial philandering, and his alcoholism, which he finally overcame in the 1980s.
"He may have been difficult at times," she once said. "But he was never boring."
During her years at Chatsworth, the duchess was a hostess in the grand manner, entertaining everyone from members of the Royal Family to her husband's cousin, Harold Macmillan, and Sir John Betjeman.
When the duke died in 2004, the now dowager duchess remained at Chatsworth for 18 months before moving to a house on the estate.
She was realistic about the move, made to give her son Stoker, the new duke, room to create his own life.
"Nothing belongs to the person," she said. "It all goes with the title. I've lived in furnished rooms since I was married."
At the age of 90 she published her own account of her upbringing because she felt the media had portrayed her family unfairly.
Wait For Me: Memoirs of the Youngest Mitford Sister shines a light on the vanished world of high society, debutantes and their delights and the traumas of World War Two.
Deborah Devonshire was an insightful literary reviewer, an outspoken defender of hunting and a longstanding fan of Elvis Presley.
She never stopped loving her family home.
"In all those years I never took the place for granted but marvelled at it and the fact we were surrounded by beauty at every turn." | Deborah Devonshire was the astute chatelaine of Chatsworth House for more than half a century. |
36839183 | Goalkeeper Foderingham, 25, who arrived last summer after being released by Swindon, has committed himself to the Ibrox side until 2019.
Kiernan's new deal takes the 25-year-old up until the summer of 2018.
They join captain Lee Wallace and manager Mark Warburton in extending their contracts with the club. | Rangers duo Wes Foderingham and Rob Kiernan have signed one-year extensions to their contracts with the newly-promoted Scottish Premiership club. |
23083911 | Treasury chief secretary Danny Alexander revealed the plan to upgrade the section as part of the "biggest investment in roads in 40 years".
While Hull City Council said it was "delighted", one of the city's Labour MPs took a different view.
Diane Johnson, Labour MP for Hull North, said the post-2015 scheme was "jam tomorrow, but jams today".
Mr Alexander told the House of Commons on Thursday the A63 scheme was part of a package of road improvements to be rolled out in the next parliament.
A campaign to upgrade the road has been under way for several years with Hull and Humber Chamber of Trade saying in 2011 it was a "hugely important we get this sorted, it's a critical road in and out of Hull and without it being improved we'll really struggle to get any serious development going."
After the announcement Hull City Council said: "We are delighted with today's news and we can now move forward with the Highways Agency to improve this important road.
"It will make a huge difference to the economy, local businesses, regeneration of the city as well as helping our aims to improve the city as a visitor destination.
"The announcement will also support Hull's City Plan and to help harness all Hull's assets to become the leading UK Energy City."
But MP Ms Johnson dismissed the announcement as "more news management than traffic management".
Ms Johnson said: "Ministers have announced that the A63 improvement works would only start 'post-2015' - that's no earlier than has been planned in Whitehall for years.
"This is jam tomorrow, but jams today for Hull.
"I'm relieved that the A63 scheme's not been put back further.
"However, given this coalition's record of cancelling or delaying capital schemes that have been announced previously, especially in the north, our campaign for the A63 upgrade should not end today." | A £160m scheme to upgrade the A63 Castle Street in Hull has been announced by the government. |
15060286 | The County Tyrone teenager has jetted out to Miami after making it through to the next stage of the television show with a stirring performance of Aerosmith's I Don't Want To Miss A Thing.
The 16-year-old singer from Gortin wowed a crowd of 5,000 people at Wembley Arena on Sunday night to seal a spot in judge Kelly Rowland's house.
She will now be mentored by the former member of Destiny's Child who will be joined by former American Idol contestant and Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson.
Nigel Frith, the principal of Janet's school, Drumragh Integerated College, said he was delighted at her success to date.
He said Janet was "living the dream" at present, but that the option was there to return to the school and study for her A-Levels even if she wins.
"We have encouraged her to keep an eye on her A Level studies as showbiz is a fickle business and it is good to have a back-up plan," he said.
"If she is to go all the way and win the competition she is welcome to return to us next September."
Mr Frith said Janet's fellow pupils had taken her new-found fame "in their stride" as she progressed through the competition.
"She has not been treated as a pop star," he added.
"When she returned to school for a brief period at the start of the term, she would sit in the canteen with her friends.
"She was not mobbed by autograph hunters.
"When her GCSE results came out there were a lot of reporters in the car park, but she waited until most people had gone before getting them."
The X Factor judges were fulsome in their praise for Janet at the weekend with Louis Walsh tipping her as the "one to beat in the competition".
Take That singer Gary Barlow said:"Every time she sings, it's like I've never heard that song before and I like it better."
The headmaster said the school had been aware of her musical prowess and that this had been illustrated when she reached the final of a regional talent competition in Northern Ireland.
"She was involved in music both in and out of school, a lot of it is self-taught, people will have seen her videos on YouTube," he added.
"She won the local heat of the Stars In Their Eyes competition which was held in the school and went through to the final in Belfast, that was about six months ago."
He described Janet as an intelligent girl and said he was impressed with the way she had handled herself both on and off stage.
"She speaks well and does not come across as half-crazed like some contestants," he said.
"She is balanced and humble." | The headmaster at X Factor starlet Janet Devlin's school has spoken of his pride at her achievements in the competition. |
37213926 | Dumfries and Galloway Council turned down the five-turbine Blackwood project east of Auldgirth in May this year.
An appeal was lodged by Force 9 Energy Partners and EDF Energy Renewables against that decision.
They argued the council's approach had been "unbalanced" but the Scottish government said the appeal was out of time and could not be considered.
The developers claimed that "limited environmental issues" had been given a "disproportionate weight" in the local authority's assessment of the project.
However, the Scottish government said it had "no scope to accept or consider" their appeal.
It said it had been submitted after a three-month deadline from the original decision had passed. | An attempt to overturn the rejection of a wind farm has failed - because the appeal was lodged too late. |
35182356 | The 26-year-old was struck on the northbound carriageway of the A4067 at Morriston, near Wychtree roundabout and the overhead pedestrian footbridge.
Emergency services were called to the scene at 03:05 GMT on Saturday and the man was pronounced dead at the scene.
The driver of the Ford Transit van involved was uninjured. | A man has died after being hit by a van in Swansea. |
35516407 | The Met Office has warned of gusts of up to 80mph in coastal areas.
Highways England said there was an increased risk of lorries, caravans and motorbikes "being blown over".
The weather has already led to some ferry disruption. Some Friday evening services have been cancelled and other services will not run on Monday.
Highways England has urged drivers of lorries, vehicles towing caravans and motorcyclists to "take extra care" and delay their journeys if the "weather becomes severe".
A spokesman said if the wind speed went above the threshold for the Severn crossings and QEII Bridge at Dartford they would have to introduce speed restrictions or shut them temporarily.
"We are keeping a close eye on the situation. There is a greater likelihood that there may be restrictions on the Severn crossing."
The Commodore Goodwill 18:30 GMT Portsmouth to Guernsey crossing and DFDS Seaways 23:30 Newhaven to Dieppe service have both been cancelled.
Sea conditions also meant one of the operator's Dover to Calais ferries was delayed earlier on Sunday. Storm Imogen warning halts ferries
The St Malo to Jersey ferry service was brought forward by three hours.
Check if this is affecting your journey
All sailings between the Channel Islands, St Malo and the UK have been halted on Monday because of the expected stormy weather conditions.
Brittany Ferries has cancelled and delayed services between Portsmouth, Santander and Bilbao for the next few days. Crossings between Poole and Cherbourg have also been halted on Monday.
The Met Office said Storm Imogen was likely to affect the Bristol Channel area and coastal areas of Sussex and Kent between 03:00 GMT and 18:00 GMT.
A yellow warning of rain is already in place for Devon, Torbay, Somerset, north Somerset and Plymouth.
There are 35 flood warnings in place in England, including five on the River Avon in Worcestershire and Gloucestershire, indicating that flooding is expected and "immediate action is required".
Fifteen racehorses had to be rescued from a champion trainer's yard in Ditcheat, Somerset, overnight after flash floods hit their stables.
Large waves are also expected to cause flooding to coastal properties in several locations in Cornwall, Devon and Somerset.
Forecaster Craig Snell said: "We have issued a broad yellow warning of wind that encompasses Cardiff, Bristol and into the Thames Estuary.
"There is an amber warning for wind mainly focused on Devon and Cornwall but stretching into central England on Monday morning.
"This means people should be prepared for disruption to travel on roads, rail, bridges and ferries and we could see possible damage to structures and downed trees risk affecting power.
"The wind will be combined with some hefty showers with some thunder along the south coast." | Ferry services have been cancelled because of severe weather warnings for the south and west of England as Storm Imogen approaches. |
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