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https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42817323 | Researchers have identified the remains of the earliest known modern humans to have left Africa.
New dating of fossils from Israel indicates that our species (Homo sapiens) lived outside Africa around 185,000 years ago, some 80,000 years earlier than the previous evidence.
Details appear in the journal Science.
The co-lead researcher, Prof Israel Hershkovitz, told BBC News that the discovery would fundamentally alter ideas of recent human evolution.
"We have to rewrite the whole story of human evolution, not just for our own species but all the other species that lived outside of Africa at the time," the researcher, from Tel Aviv University, explained.
Prof Chris Stringer of London's Natural History Museum, who was not involved in the study, said: "The find breaks the long-established 130,000-year-old limit on modern humans outside of Africa.
"The new dating hints that there could be even older Homo sapiens finds to come from the region of western Asia."
The new scientific dating evidence raises the possibility that modern humans interacted with other, now extinct, species of humans for tens of thousands of years. It also fits in with recent discoveries of remains and genetic studies that also indicate an earlier departure from Africa.
The researchers analysed a fragment of a jawbone with eight teeth, found in Misliya cave in 2002. The jawbone looked as if it was from a modern human rather than from one of the other species of human that existed at the time.
It is only now that an international research team has conclusively shown that the archaeologists' initial gut feelings were spot on.
The researchers confirmed that the jawbone belonged to a modern human by carrying out computed tomography (CT) scans of it, building up a 3D virtual model and comparing it with archaic human fossils from Africa, Europe and Asia - as well as modern human remains. Separate scans also enabled the researchers to probe the tissue beneath the tooth crowns, which was found to be uniquely associated with modern humans.
Three separate dating methods, conducted in three separate laboratories unaware of the others' results concluded that the fossilised remains were between 177,000 and 194,000 years old.
Before that, the oldest evidence of humans outside Africa came from the Skhul and Qafzeh archaeological sites in Israel, and were dated to between 90,000 and 125,000 years ago.
The Misliya remains were found in a layer containing stone tools that belong to the Levallois type, which was used in the region between 250,000 and 140,000 years ago. If Levallois tools are associated with the spread of modern humans into the area, it suggests that our species may have journeyed beyond Africa even earlier than the dates for the Misliya material.
Until recently, early evidence for excursions outside Africa by Homo sapiens was limited to the Levant. But in the last few years, discoveries of modern human fossils from Daoxian and Zhirendong in China dated to between 80,000 and 120,000 years ago suggest early waves of migration pushed further into Eurasia than previously supposed.
In addition, genetic studies have turned up signs of early interbreeding between African humans and our evolutionary relatives the Neanderthals.
Last year, researchers published evidence from German Neanderthal remains of mixing that occurred between 219,000 and 460,000 years ago. And in 2016, a team found signs that pioneer groups from Africa interbred with Neanderthals in the Altai region of Siberia about 100,000 years ago.
"We had so many new pieces of evidence and we didn't know where they fitted," said Prof Hershkovitz.
"Now with the new discovery, all the pieces fall into place - an exodus possibly as early as 250,000 years ago, which is the date of the tools found in the Misliya Cave."
However, the early excursions into Eurasia by African Homo sapiens represented at Misliya are generally thought to have ended in extinction. Findings from genetics and archaeology suggest that present-day people living outside Africa trace their ancestry to an exodus just 60,000 years ago. Most DNA studies have failed to find evidence of these older migrations in our genes.
Other discoveries have shed light on when humans in Africa evolved to become anatomically modern. Last year, a team announced that fossils thought to be early versions of Homo sapiens in Morocco had been dated to about 315,000 years ago.
This is much earlier than the generally accepted 200,000-year date for the origin of our species, which is based on genetic studies and fossil finds such as the 195,000-year-old Omo remains from Ethiopia. And it's possible that future discoveries might push the date back even further. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/south_west/3822015.stm | American Mormons visiting the homes of their forefathers in Wales have left permanent tributes to their ancestors.
Direct descendants of immigrants from Carmarthenshire have unveiled plaques where they used to live.
Many thousands of Welsh converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints crossed the Atlantic in the 1840s and 1850s.
A party of 80 of the descendants have been in Wales this week on a mission to find out more about their family histories.
Two plaques have been unveiled at historic properties in Llanybydder where prominent Mormons lived before leaving for a new life in the states.
One was at Glantren Fawr Farm, home to Thomas and Sarah Evans Jeremy, the first to be converted in the village by missionary Dan Jones.
They sailed from Liverpool in 1849 aboard the Buena Vista, arriving in America two months later before setting up home in Salt Lake City.
The other was at the Cross Hands Inn, used frequently as a Mormon meeting place in the 1850s.
The landlord's son Richard "Cross Hands" Jones and his wife Mary Hughes Evans also made new lives for themselves in America.
The party has been led by Ronald Dennis - a Welsh speaking professor at Brigham Young University and the great great grandson of Dan Jones.
"We feel a great kinship with Wales because of our Welsh roots," he said.
"These people joined the church in very difficult circumstances.
"They paid a great price auctioning off everything they had so that they could go to what they thought was a better life where they could practice their religion without any restraint.
"We number in the tens of thousands who have these Welsh connections.
"We look at our pedigree chart and see the Joneses, the Thomases, the Lewises and our hearts swell with pride with having that connection.
"The feelings today are those of gratitude and sincere appreciation for the sacrifices made by our ancestors." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3260953.stm | The Conservative Party has decided to sell the lease on its London HQ.
The Tory party board agreed on Tuesday to move to "new, more suitable premises as soon as possible".
Newspaper reports suggest leaving Smith Square in Westminster could raise £6m for the Tory election war chest.
Conservative Central Office has been home to the party since the 1950s but it is 11 years since it hosted an election victory party.
Announcing the sell-off, Mr Howard said he was impressed by the "unity of purpose" shown at the board meeting.
Raymond Monbiot, chairman of the Conservative National Convention and deputy Tory chairman said: "The decision taken today is just one more element in streamlining the Conservative Party machine for fighting the next general election."
Shadow home secretary David Davis told BBC Radio 4's PM programme: "I'm afraid 32 Smith Square has got old and we need to find rather more purpose-built accommodation for modern use."
Mr Davis said the party wanted somewhere with open plan offices and facilities like a television and press centre.
The decision is also a symbolic move away from a building which in recent years has become heavily associated with plotting and back-biting against the leadership.
Labour famously moved from Walworth Road to Millbank ahead of its 1997 election triumph, although it has now moved to Old Queen Street.
The decision comes as Mr Howard's new team of shadow ministers start their first day in the job.
Among other changes announced on Tuesday was MP Boris Johnson, editor of the Spectator magazine, becoming a vice-chairman in charge of campaigning.
Despite cutting size of his shadow cabinet by more than half to 12, Mr Howard has now given jobs to more than 100 MPs.
Monday's reshuffle also saw former leaders John Major, William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith, as well as ex-chancellor Ken Clarke, form a new council of "wise men".
Big winners in the changes include new shadow home secretary Mr Davis and new shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin.
Tim Yeo also takes up the huge joint brief of education and health.
Mr Yeo said the changes would make the Tory top team able to react much more quickly to events.
The senior ministers will be backed by teams of junior "shadow secretaries".
One notable absentee from the council of "wise men", Lord Heseltine, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he would not have expected to be included in such a group and was encouraged by the start Michael Howard had made.
"What he has done and the way the announcements have come through is one of the most encouraging things that has happened in the Conservative Party for a very long time.
"I believe that he has recognised the fundamental fact about the Tory Party, which is that it is a broad church and to work, to be effective, to appeal widely, you have to represent a spectrum of opinion and mould it together into a fighting force," the former deputy prime minister said.
The Tory chairman role has been split between Lord Saatchi, the advertising guru who helped Margaret Thatcher towards her historic 1979 election victory, and former health spokesman Dr Liam Fox.
Lord Saatchi will be focusing on making Conservative Central Office a "premier political machine" once again.
Dr Fox will instead be the public face of party headquarters, taking charge of campaigning, policy and media issues.
Labour chairman Ian McCartney accused Mr Howard of downgrading the health and education portfolios.
"While it takes two shadow cabinet members to run a declining Tory Party, apparently it takes only one to deal with the whole of the NHS and the schools system," added Mr McCartney.
That critique was echoed by Liberal Democrat chairman Matthew Taylor.
"Michael Howard has appointed the same old faces to promote the same old faded and unpopular policies, redirecting NHS and education funds towards subsidising those able to afford private treatment and private education," he said. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-31395467 | Was the car park of an apartment complex the reason for a triple murder, or were cars just a pretext for a hate crime?
Michael Nam points to a parking space in the Finley Forest condominium complex in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It doesn't look like much - a stretch of pavement and a stone marker with the word "reserved" in faded white letters. Two squashed pinecones are lying on the ground.
It meant something to Craig Stephen Hicks, though. Once when Nam parked his car there, Hicks came out of his apartment with a gun holstered on his hip. It was at about four on a November afternoon.
"I was like, 'Is this for real?'" Nam says. "I'm not afraid of your gun, but why the hell did you bring it out?"
They argued over the parking space. Hicks, who is 46, took out his mobile phone and showed him a map of the condominium complex, pointing to the places where people are allowed to park - and which places are reserved.
Finally Nam - more annoyed than scared - moved his car.
Image caption The three victims: Deah Barakat, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha.
"I'm like, 'You're a middle-aged guy, and you want to make it an issue,'" Nam says. "You be you."
In the complex, each apartment gets a reserved space. But there are unreserved spaces throughout the car park and those who live in the complex can also park there. Residents often find that their reserved space is taken, so they park in an un-reserved one or in someone else's parking place.
The system is chaotic and the source of many complaints.
Residents say Hicks had two parking spaces he focused on in front of his apartment.
Hicks' wife, Karen, was also vigilant. She'd come out of the apartment when she thought rules had been violated.
"She'd say, 'You're not allowed to park here'," Nam says.
Recalling these encounters with his neighbours, he glances over at the offending vehicle, a white 2007 Volvo. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina with a degree in biology, and works at a local pharmacy as a technician.
He lives in a tranquil place - at least most of the time. A pond is nearby with a wooden dock, and the air smells like pine needles. Two geese fly overhead.
This week, though, the place has been anything but peaceful.
On Tuesday afternoon, Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, were shot dead.
Barakat was studying dentistry at the graduate level at University of North Carolina. Razan Abu-Salha was a student at North Carolina State University.
They were all shot in the head, and were found dead in their apartment. Hicks has been arrested.
Afterwards a woman called 911 and described what she'd heard - terror and mayhem, followed by silence.
"More than one girl screaming and then nothing," she told the police. "Then I heard more shots go off."
As I was speaking to Nam on Wednesday afternoon, a helicopter hovers over the condominiums, momentarily drowning out his voice.
Journalists from around the country, including me, have come here. They've also taken up most of the parking spaces.
We are not all here to cover a story about an alleged parking dispute. Instead, the question is whether the killings were motivated by the victim's Muslim faith. It's also why the story has gotten so much attention on social media.
No one doubts the horror of the incident on Tuesday afternoon.
But if the victims were killed because of their religion, it becomes an "international" incident, as one journalist, a North Carolina reporter for the News & Observer, tells me.
The chief of the Chapel Hill police, Chris Blue, issued a statement about the shootings: "We understand the concerns about the possibility that this was hate-motivated, and we will exhaust every lead to determine if that is the case."
Karen Hicks is quick to say she and her husband were concerned about parking spaces, describing her married life to reporters in front of her lawyer's office in Chapel Hill on Wednesday.
He is a "champion", she says, for the rights of individuals. Her eyes are filled with tears. She holds a piece of paper, a press statement, in front of her, and her hands are shaking.
When asked to explain more about her husband's views, though, she looks confused.
"It's almost like you have to be with him to understand," she says. "I know you can't just say, 'Trust me'" her voice trails off.
A moment later, her lawyer, Robert Maitland, puts his hand on her shoulder. Her husband was studying to be a paralegal, she says.
"He was unemployed," says Maitland after the press conference, speaking quietly to a reporter on the steps of his law firm. "He was 'the parking-lot guy' - you know the type. He would go around and check on parking spaces."
But the father of the female victims is not convinced.
"It was execution style, a bullet in every head," Mohammad Abu-Salha told the Charlotte News Observer. "This was not a dispute over a parking space; this was a hate crime. This man had picked on my daughter and her husband a couple of times before, and he talked with them with his gun in his belt. And they were uncomfortable with him, but they did not know he would go this far."
The condominium complex, a place where graduate students and young families live, is located in a small college town. People here have plenty of stories about parking - and almost as many theories about what happened on Tuesday.
Phil Varnadore, a University of Florida graduate, is walking two dogs, a husky named Chance and a mutt called Billy, near the pond.
"We all have parking spots. You have a right to them," he says. But as he says: "Usually you call a tow truck before you commit murder."
Still he downplays the idea of a hate crime, saying: "I don't think it made it easier to kill them because they were Muslim, black or whatever."
Gina Rocket, who has lived there for the past year and a half, says she isn't sure about the motive. "I think it could be a combination - a hate crime that was also about parking."
Late in the afternoon Nam gets ready to go inside his apartment.
"I heard they were dental students," he says, explaining that he hopes someday to work as a pharmacist. "I was like, 'Man, they were so close.' I'm sure they had the same dreams I do - you want to go out and help people."
Hicks is being held without bail, and a hearing is scheduled for 4 March. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21114512 | At least 48 hostages are now thought to have died in a four-day siege at an Algerian gas plant, as reports say that 25 bodies found at the complex on Sunday were all those of captives.
It had initially been unclear whether the bodies found were those of hostage-takers or staff at the facility.
A search is continuing at the In Amenas gas plant, where as many as 20 hostages remain unaccounted for.
Five suspected Islamist attackers were reportedly arrested on Sunday.
The Algerian authorities had said on Saturday that all 32 hostage-takers had been killed. The suspected organiser of the attack, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, said 40 militants had taken part.
The siege ended when troops mounted an assault on Saturday, saying the militants had begun killing foreign hostages.
Western leaders condemned the attack with French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian describing it as an "act of war".
The plant, which is responsible for more than a tenth of Algeria's overall gas output, is expected to resume production by Tuesday, Algeria's Energy Minister Youcef Yousfi said.
Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal is due to give a new conference about the attack later on Monday.
The energy minister also pledged to boost security at energy installations but insisted it was "out of the question to allow foreign security forces to handle the security" of Algerian oil facilities.
During a visit to the affected plant on Sunday, Mr Yousfi said it would resume production within two days.
Security forces reportedly discovered the bodies of 25 hostages as they searched the complex for booby-traps and mines.
The militants had threatened to blow up the site and kill their hostages, officials said.
Belmokhtar, who is not thought to have been among the actual attackers, said his group had carried out the attack. He was speaking in a video message carried by the Mauritanian website Sahara Media.
The website said the video had been recorded on 17 January while the siege was still going on but not posted on the website.
It shows Belmokhtar, who has convictions in absentia for murder, kidnapping and terrorism, saying he was prepared to negotiate with Western and Algerian leaders if operations against Islamists in Mali were stopped.
The crisis began on Wednesday when militants attacked two buses carrying foreign workers to the remote site in south-eastern Algeria. A Briton and an Algerian died in the incident.
The militants then took expatriates hostage at the complex, which was quickly surrounded by the Algerian army.
Algerian state media said later that 685 Algerian workers at the plant had been freed but it is unclear if any Algerians were actually taken hostage, with reports that militants told them they were only targeting non-Muslims.
A statement from the kidnappers said the assault on the gas plant had been launched in retaliation for French intervention against Islamist groups in neighbouring Mali.
However, France only decided last week to intervene militarily in Mali. Analysts say the assault on the gas facility was well-planned and would have required advance research, as well as possibly inside help.
Bus attack: 05:00 local time 16 January: Heavily armed gunmen attack two buses carrying gas field workers towards In Amenas airfield. A Briton and an Algerian die in the fighting.
Army attacks: 12:00 (13:00 GMT) 17 January: Algerian forces attack as militants try to move some of their captives from the facility. Reports say some hostages escape, but others are killed.
Final assault: The Algerians ended the raid on 19 January, killing the last 11 captors after they had killed seven hostages, state media reported. At least 48 hostages and 32 militants in total are now believed to have died.
Are you, or is someone you know, affected by the issues in this story? Send us your experiences using the form below. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-11998932 | There has been a rise in the number of people claiming unemployment benefit in Northern Ireland.
The number of people claiming benefit has risen to 58,500, a monthly increase of 100 in November.
NI's increase was the fourth highest monthly rise in the number claiming unemployment benefits across 12 UK regions.
The figures show there is a now a divergence between NI and the rest of the UK.
Over the year, the Northern Ireland claimant count has increased by 8.5% compared to a fall of 9.7% in the UK.
Commenting on the figures, Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster said: "It was disappointing to note the latest increase in the unemployment rate for Northern Ireland.
"Nevertheless, our unemployment rate (7.6%) is still lower than the corresponding rate for the United Kingdom (7.9%) and it also compares favourably to the latest European Union (9.6%) and Republic of Ireland (14.1%) figures.
"Although the figures for November 2010 show a marginal increase of 100 in the number of people claiming unemployment benefits, over recent months there has been a notable slowing in the rate of increase, with the latest monthly increase much less marked than last year," she added.
"The Quarterly Employment Survey results for September 2010 also indicated a slow down in the rate of job losses in Northern Ireland.
"The latest quarterly decrease in jobs was approximately one quarter of the average fall in jobs since the start of the downturn.
"The industry driving this quarter's job losses was once again the construction sector, as firms continue to find economic conditions difficult," Ms Foster added.
"However, on a brighter note, manufacturing companies reported an increase in jobs for the second consecutive quarter and the number of private sector jobs increased for the first time in two years." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3728753.stm | Fathers' rights campaigners known for their protests dressed as superheroes have managed to halt Prime Minister's Questions by throwing missiles at ministers.
The Commons was suspended after purple powder was thrown and hit Tony Blair on the back. Fathers-4-Justice (F4J) claimed responsibility.
F4J founder Matt O'Connor said the group was protesting, in the run-up to Fathers' Day, at MPs' failure to help fathers in their fight to gain access to children through the courts.
Earlier this year, the group said it was planning an escalation of activity as part of a national campaign of civil disruption.
Superhero-clad protesters staged a demonstration on the roof of a Devon court building on Tuesday. There have also been demonstrations on a crane in Manchester, on Bristol's Clifton Suspension Bridge, and on gantries over key roads in London.
Before Christmas, an army of militant Santas marched on Parliament.
The group has admitted protesters are running the risk of imprisonment but says its tactics are a "last resort", that its frustrated members have "exhausted every possible avenue".
"We are a bunch of guys who are going to be making some pretty scary sacrifices. We know many of us are going to go to prison but there is tremendous resolve," Mr O'Connor has said.
"It comes down to the simple fact that we face a Herculean struggle. The politicians are not dealing with this with the degree of urgency this matter deserves."
Mr O'Connor says fathers have been fighting "a steady erosion" of their rights for 30 years, without success. F4J's own meetings with the government in the year and a half since it started have, he says, proved fruitless.
"It is now at the point where we have to fight for basic rights. So many people have lost contact with their children through the courts, it was inevitable something like Fathers-4-Justice was going to emerge," Mr O'Connor says.
He believes the group has already achieved considerable success in its first aim of raising awareness of a problem that has "gone unnoticed and unreported".
But F4J's second aim is a tougher proposition - it wants an overhaul of family law within two years.
Figures show that mothers gain custody in four out of five disputes - F4J believes that 40% of fathers subsequently lose contact with their children within two years. Mr O'Connor says some of these cases will be due to fathers turning their backs, but he claims that the "vast majority" are due to mothers denying access.
Family courts issue contact orders in an attempt to ensure access for the parent not living with their children, but Mr O'Connor says these are worthless because they are not enforced.
"People have complete carte blanche to stop contact, knowing that the judge will do absolutely nothing about it," he says.
The government admits that the enforcement of contact orders is "an issue" that needs to be addressed. A Department of Constitutional Affairs (DCA) spokesman says "courts are understandably reluctant to impose jail terms or fines on mothers who have children to look after".
But F4J believes the solution is to give parents and grandparents "a legal right to see their children and grandchildren".
"The law says you have no legal right to see your children - only a right to apply to a court to see them - but you have a legal obligation to pay for them," says Mr O'Connor. Fathers are forced to support children even when mothers are not being forced to allow those fathers access, he says.
But F4J's claims are disputed by family support group One Parent Families, which says there is no way they can know how often mothers deny fathers' rights because there are simply no reliable facts and figures.
A One Parent Families spokesman says the charity receives 25,000 calls a year and that "one of the most common complaints is that mothers desperately want their children to have contact with their father and they have difficulty maintaining that".
In any case, court orders are only a small part of the overall picture. The DCA says that in more than 90% of break-ups involving children, custody arrangements are agreed outside the courts. Constitutional Affairs Secretary Lord Falconer is, however, considering the issue of custody disputes and hopes to make proposals within a matter of months.
"We are keen to keep couples who split up away from the courts," the DCA spokesman said. "It is not the best way of solving custody disputes. Family courts have an adversarial process that leads to more tension. Plus it is always a longer process.
"What we intend to do is introduce schemes to encourage parents to mediate more, with the help of experts, and come to their own arrangements. Orders agreed by parents themselves are more likely to be adhered to."
"Fathers for justice claim today's protest was a dramatic way of getting their message across"
How secure is the Commons?
Who are Fathers 4 Justice? |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-20900845 | The return to work after the Christmas break is even more gruelling for rail commuters facing the annual hike in fares.
Tens of thousands of commuters face big increases for the 10th successive year. Season ticket holders across the commuter towns of the east will be paying above inflation rises.
More then a year after it was announced, Oyster, the magnetic travel card system used throughout London, is being extended to Shenfield and Brentwood.
So an annual rail ticket from Shenfield will buck the trend and cost £16 less, at just more than £2,700, from January.
Everywhere else sees significant rises.
The government has defended the increases, saying it's only right for passengers to pay towards investment in the railways.
Therese Coffey, Conservative MP for Suffolk Coastal, said: "We did come back and revisit this and put the price rise back to 1% above inflation, which is what Labour introduced in 2004.
"One of the things we have to recognise is that we have to pay for investment as a whole for the railways and we need to fund resources for our own lines.
"MPs from all parties, here in the east, are united in pushing for investment and we are continuing to press the Secretary of State to ensure our franchise stays on track."
Northamptonshire saw the region's highest increases. Labour's Andy Sawford, MP for Corby, believes the increases are simply unfair.
"A cost of a single, off-peak ticket to London from Corby is now £44.50. This is a 6% increase on 2012 prices. All this is happening at a time when real wages are being squeezed.
"David Cameron promised he would limit fare rises to 1% above inflation, which should have seen fare rises capped at 4.2 per cent in Northamptonshire."
The train operating companies say successive governments have required them to increase average season ticket prices by more than inflation.
The government says it has already cut back the latest increase and is determined to reduce the cost of running railways, so it can end the era of above inflation fare rises - something I'm sure we would all welcome. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45478930 | A suspect has been arrested for the killing of a Canadian schoolgirl following a breakthrough in a lengthy investigation into her death.
Ibrahim Ali, 28, a Canadian permanent resident, faces first degree murder charges for the killing of Marrisa Shen, 13.
Her body was found in a park in Burnaby, British Columbia in July 2017, shortly after she was reported missing.
Police said at the time that they believed the crime was a "random" act.
Authorities say Mr Ali had no criminal record nor prior contact with police before he came to their attention about two weeks ago.
They did not reveal what evidence led to his arrest over the weekend, saying only it was the "culmination of a number of things".
They do not believe Mr Ali and Ms Shen knew each other.
Mr Ali came to Canada as a Syrian refugee 17 months ago and was living in Burnaby, a community east of the city of Vancouver.
His arrest marked the end of one of the largest investigations for the British Columbia's Integrated Homicide Investigation Team in its 15-year history.
The Shen family released a statement on Monday, thanking the public for their support and for submitting hundreds of tips to police.
"We hope that justice will now be served and that Marrisa can finally be at peace in heaven," they said.
Homicide team Superintendent Donna Richardson said she hoped that there would be no backlash due to Mr Ali's status in Canada.
"By and large, our refugees that come to the country are hard working citizens that are happy to be in Canada, and I would just hope that we look at this incident for what it is - a one-off situation," she said.
Marissa Shen's body was found in a wooded area in a popular park not far from her home in the early morning hours of 19 July.
The schoolgirl was last seen leaving a Tim Hortons restaurant and walking in the direction of the park. Her family reported her missing about four hours later.
Police have released few details about the circumstances of her death.
The suspect is due to appear in court on 14 September. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4560414.stm | India has been holding ceremonies to mark the first anniversary of the tsunami which hit its south-eastern coast and the Andamans Islands.
In the southern state of Tamil Nadu, a memorial column was unveiled in the worst-hit district, Nagapattinam.
More than 6,000 people in the district died in the tragedy.
The huge waves claimed the lives of thousands of people in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and left thousands of others homeless.
Residents of Nagapattinam observed a minute's silence at 0917 local time (0347 GMT), the exact time when the killer waves hit the shore.
The district's top administrative official, collector J Radhakrishnan, opened a park with 6,065 saplings, one for every person who died in the disaster.
A memorial pillar was also unveiled, where children orphaned in the tsunami placed wreaths.
"Most of us want to study well and get away from fishing," R Omsri, 14, is quoted as saying by AFP.
Special prayers were held in churches in memory of those who lost their lives.
The BBC's TN Gopalan says for many, life is still far from normal.
Many fishermen say they are still scared of going out to sea.
The state government has handed over more than 1,000 fully constructed houses to those who lost their homes in the tsunami, but many more still need to be built.
Some residents complain that they have not received the aid promised by the state government.
In the Andaman and Nicobar islands, groups of people walked from village to village in silence, in memory of those who lost their lives.
On the island of Car Nicobar, the Indian military unveiled a memorial to the more than 100 air force personnel who were killed when the tsunami overwhelmed an air force base.
"I die each morning when I wake up," Lieutenant Colonel N Chakravarty, who lost his wife and two daughters, told AFP.
Many of the people who died on the islands were tribal people, and there have been complaints that the aid sent from the mainland is both inadequate and unsuitable. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/b/barnsley/9521856.stm | Barnsley have completed the quadruple signings of Brighton's Jimmy McNulty, Matt Done and Scott Wiseman from Rochdale and Miles Addison from Derby.
McNulty, a 26-year-old defender, joins on a two-year deal for an undisclosed five-figure fee from Brighton.
Midfielder Done, 23, and defender Wiseman, 25, have moved from Rochdale on respective two and three-year deals.
Barnsley boss Keith Hill has also secured the services of utility player Addison, 22, on a six-month loan.
Left-sided defender McNulty, who signed on Thursday, began his career with Everton before moving to Wrexham, Macclesfield and Stockport.
He joined the Seagulls in February 2009 for £150,000 and last season played in the Championship while on loan at Scunthorpe.
Done, who operates on the left but also plays behind the striker, joined the Tykes on Tuesday.
Wiseman, a right-sided defender, helped Dale reach their first promotion, alongside Done, in 41 years. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-11106607 | Thousands of London firefighters are to start voting on whether to take industrial action in a row over new contracts.
The dispute centres on plans to scrap current working hours and force fire crews to sign new contracts.
The London Fire Brigade Union said it will ballot about 6,000 members in the capital on action short of a strike.
The London Fire Brigade described the ballot as "totally unnecessary" and said it hoped action would be averted.
The brigade announced earlier this month it was starting consultations on terminating existing employment contracts and re-engaging firefighters on new start and finishing times to shifts.
Matt Wrack, the FBU's general secretary, said: "It's a great shame that London firefighters have to consider industrial action, but they won't tolerate attempts to threaten or intimidate them.
"The proposal to end the contracts of all London firefighters is the most disgraceful thing I have ever seen in the fire service."
He added: "The people who are taking these decisions about cutting the service and reducing night-time fire cover in London have not the first idea what firefighting is all about."
London Fire Brigade Commissioner Ron Dobson said: "This is totally unnecessary.
"These changes are about doing all that we possibly can with existing resources to make Londoners safe."
He added: "It is hoped that talks will result in a conclusion to this long-term issue that will avoid the need to terminate current contracts or for any form of industrial action."
The ballot result is due on 17 September, with any action likely to start from 24 September. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-31165939 | Six primaries where lessons are mainly taught in English will switch to learning in Gaelic later this year.
Bernera, Breasclete, Castlebay, Iochdar, Leverhulme Memorial and Sgoil an Taobh Siar on the Western Isles have been given Gaelic Schools Status.
Learning and Scotland's Languages Minister Dr Alasdair Allan made the announcement during a visit to Breasclete School.
In 1986 it was the first school on the islands to offer pupils Gaelic.
Dr Allan said: "The Scottish government has been happy to provide the capital support to the project and hopes that other schools will see the benefit from the status that Gaelic can bring.
"This is a milestone in the delivery of Gaelic primary education in Scotland, which has an important role in developing future generations of speakers."
He added: "Great things are happening at Breasclete and all of the six schools, with Gaelic taking its place at the heart of the curriculum, strengthening pupils' bond with Gaelic language, culture and bilingualism."
Catriona Stewart, chairwoman of education and children's services in the Western Isles, said she was delighted the six schools had been given Gaelic status.
She said: "The comhairle remains committed to strengthening Gaelic in the Western Isles and although we realise there is much work to do, there are also some very encouraging signs, not least that 47% of pupils in P1 are in Gaelic-medium education. " |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13421393 | A bomb has been made safe in the Republic of Ireland just hours before the Queen's visit.
It was discovered on a bus outside the Glen Royal Hotel in Maynooth, County Kildare at 2130 BST on Monday.
It was later made safe by an Irish army bomb disposal team.
An Irish army bomb disposal unit is dealing with a suspect device at Dublin's Phoenix Park. A suspect package found earlier near the Luas tram line at Inchicore was a hoax.
A suspicious device found at Fairview Park in Dublin also turned out to be a hoax.
The alerts came ahead of the Queen's historic trip to the Irish Republic.
Speaking on BBC NI's Good Morning Ulster, Irish prime minister Enda Kenny condemned those who left the bomb.
"Obviously, the Garda authorities working together with the British authorities in respect of safety for the Queen have put in place a really serious operation in respect of safeguarding the Queen," he said.
"The vast, vast majority of people here welcome the visit of the Queen and her party. We hope that they will have a very enjoyable time here."
A massive security operation is in place in Dublin and a bomb threat from Irish dissidents was received in London on Monday.
Up to 4,000 people are involved in the ongoing security operation for the four-day trip.
Around 30 people were on the private bus in Maynooth on which the bomb was found.
It is understood it had stopped there on its way to Dublin from Ballina in County Mayo.
John Gilligan of the Irish police said they were waiting to find out more about the device.
"We are prepared for eventualities, we have the experience and we have a lot of cooperation with the police force in Northern Ireland, the UK security services and British police.
"These incidents are very much regrettable.
"It is such an important visit, everyone wants this visit to go well and that is what we have to get on with today."
The Foreign Office said on Tuesday the Queen's visit would go ahead despite the discovery of the bomb in Maynooth. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15481301 | Chelsea have lost a vote to buy back their own stadium from a group owned by their fans.
Only 61.5% of shareholders in Chelsea Pitch Owners voted in favour of selling the freehold for the club's Stamford Bridge stadium back to the club.
Approval of 75% of the shareholders was needed to pass the proposal.
CPO acquired the freehold to the stadium in 1997 to protect Stamford Bridge from developers should the club run into financial difficulties.
Chelsea had wanted to buy the stadium in order to facilitate a possible move to a new stadium and redevelopment of the site.
However, many fans opposed the move from the club's current location where it has been based for more than a century.
"Chelsea FC is naturally disappointed with the result. While we will remain as ambitious as ever, this decision could slow down our progress," the club said in a statement.
The club maintains no decision has been made on a move, even if the club does buy the stadium.
The club feels that Stamford Bridge's current capacity of 42,000 puts Chelsea at a financial disadvantage compared with rivals such as Arsenal whose new stadium holds 60,000. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-32789580 | How often have you looked around at a meeting or in the office, lecture hall or event space and seen a room full of just men?
Now one website is pointing out this phenomenon by publishing photos of all-male panels, or "manels". The site is a Tumblr blog, sarcastically called, Congrats! You Have an All-Male Panel.
It started in February and features 200 photos, submitted from people from about 10 countries. The simple but now-viral idea is a project of the Finnish feminist researcher and artist Saara Sarma, who specializes in internet parody images and memes.
Whether it's a Global Summit of Women with only men on the panel or back-to-back male panels in conferences, the images on the site bring home the message that gender equality among rostrums of leaders or experts is in short supply.
The blog has over 5,000 followers on Tumblr. The site has been shared on Twitter more than 6,000 times and been liked or shared on Facebook over 60,000 times.
The most distinctive part of the Tumblr blog is a stamp added to every submitted panel. It's a photo of a picture of David Hasselhoff, the American actor, best known for his lead roles in the popular US TV series Knight Rider and Baywatch.
Image caption Sarma considers it a double whammy if the panels are all-male and all-white.
There's no indication that the Hasselhoff actually endorses all-male panels, instead Sarma says: "He just epitomises white masculinity especially in his '80s Knight Rider appearance, a lone white man saving the world with a help of a car. I grew up watching Knight Rider so I do have some kind of fondness for the Hoff."
Sarma believes the stamp is partly what has made the blog popular. "This is such an enraging and sad thing, but to be able to laugh at it is truly empowering for many people," she says.
Sarma points to many other efforts to call groups out on the "manel" phenomena including the Twitter accounts of watchdog group @EUPanelwatch and @genderavenger, public forums like Foreign Policy Interrupted and websites manpanels.org and that of Owen Barder, the Director for Europe at the Centre for Global Development, who is encouraging male experts to take a pledge not to appear on all-male panels.
"I think it is always very small steps that we take towards equality, so I don't dare to hope that manels would stop altogether, but if this makes people to think about diversity more seriously and at least some people commit to not organising all male or all white panels, I'd be very happy," Sarma says. "I'd be very happy if I never saw any of my colleagues on an all-male panel again."
Next story: Where did Charlie Charlie Challenge come from? |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23238531 | A Spanish newspaper has published what it alleges are documents showing Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and other top politicians received illicit payments.
El Mundo said it had original ledger entries handwritten by the former treasurer of the governing Popular Party (PP), Luis Barcenas.
It said it had delivered the documents to the High Court.
Mr Rajoy and other PP members have repeatedly denied that they received illegal payments.
Another Spanish paper, El Pais, published similar documents earlier this year.
It is claimed that Mr Barcenas ran a PP slush fund that took donations from construction magnates and distributed them to party leaders in cash.
Mr Barcenas is in custody facing trial for corruption and tax fraud. He denies the allegations.
However, in an interview published in El Mundo on Sunday, Mr Barcenas for the first time admitted that the handwriting in the ledger was his.
He added that the photocopies originally published by El Pais were a fraction of the documents he had in his possession.
El Mundo said the documents it had seen showed that Mr Rajoy received payments in 1997, 1998 and 1999 when he was a minister in the government of Jose Maria Aznar.
They included, it said, two payments to Mr Rajoy of 2.1m pesetas (12,600 euros; £11,000) in 1998.
The alleged payments are said to have been undeclared and untaxed.
Spanish opposition leader Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba in February called on Mariano Rajoy to resign over the allegations.
"The Luis Barcenas originals published by El Mundo today pulverise the alibi used until now by the PP to deny the authenticity of its ex-treasurer's papers," El Mundo said.
The PP responded with a statement saying: "The Popular Party reiterates that it does not know of the notes nor their content, and it does not in any way recognise them as the accounts of this political organisation."
This is another twist in possibly the most important corruption scandal to hit modern Spanish politics, says the BBC's Tom Burridge in Madrid.
The allegations have caused anger among Spaniards already suffering a deep and long recession and biting austerity cuts. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2834997.stm | Pakistan has said it will not support military action against Iraq.
Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali told parliament that his government was opposed to any action that could harm the people of a Muslim country.
Correspondents say this is Pakistan's first clear statement on the subject of war with Iraq.
But it has still not indicated if it will oppose a US and UK-backed resolution in the UN Security Council that favours immediate military action, or abstain.
As one of the Security Council's 10 non-permanent members, Pakistan has been under intense pressure to side with its key ally, the United States.
However, the government appears to have decided not to go against public opinion in Pakistan which is strongly opposed to a US-led war against Iraq, correspondents say.
Mr Jamali, who is scheduled to visit the US later in the month, made his statement as parliament began a debate on the subject of war with Iraq.
"Pakistan will not become part of any aggression against Iraq," he told members of the lower house.
"The cabinet unanimously decided to continue to base Pakistan's position on Iraq on principles and national interests.
"Peace must be given a chance and all options for a peaceful resolution must be explored."
A resolution tabled by the US and the UK gives Iraq until 17 March to rid itself of its nuclear, chemical and biological capabilities.
Mr Jamali said the government would decide which way to vote, when actual voting took place in the Security Council.
The BBC's Zaffar Abbas in Islamabad says it is not clear how the US will react to Pakistan's opposition to war - but the popularity of the prime minister will certainly be improved at home.
On Sunday, tens of thousands took to the streets of Rawalpindi to protest against plans to attack Iraq.
They were particularly critical of President Musharraf for failing to openly oppose military action against Iraq. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7177054.stm | The remains of two boys killed by their father almost a century ago, then stolen for research in Edinburgh, could be returned to family members.
Edinburgh University said it was willing to return body parts of William and John Higgins if "relatives" could prove their relationships to the boys.
Maureen Marella, who claims to be the boys' cousin, believes they should receive a Christian burial.
William, seven, and John, four, were found dead in West Lothian in 1911.
The brothers were murdered by their father, Patrick, who drowned them in a flooded quarry near Winchburgh.
The bodies were well preserved in the icy water and scientists were able to give damning evidence against Higgins at his murder trial. He was convicted and hanged.
When the bodies were found, two forensic scientists decided to take some of the body parts for research without telling the family.
Sir Sidney Smith and Harvey Littlejohn removed limbs and internal organs before sealing up the rest of their remains in coffins for burial.
Parts of the boys' bodies have been held by Edinburgh University ever since.
Speaking to BBC Scotland from her home in Las Vegas, Ms Marella said: "I feel they need to be put to rest. I don't have a problem with scientific research whatsoever but I feel that what they are using their body parts for can come from other sources.
"I think Sir Sidney Smith did a terrible thing taking the body parts and my message to Edinburgh University is to let them go."
Chris Paton, a genealogist from Scotland's Greatest Story, said: "Higgins had been given custody of his two boys after his wife had died and had been unable to cope with looking after the two boys so they suddenly disappeared one night.
"It was 18 months later when their bodies were found in a quarry floating in the water."
An Edinburgh University spokeswoman said: "This case, which retains immense forensic significance, is a tragic illustration of how a single criminal act has consequences which cross the boundaries of both geography and time.
"With this in mind, the university is only too willing to return the remains, on the condition that proof can be provided of Maureen Marella's relationship to the two boys and, of course, that other surviving relatives are in agreement.
"Although at the time the case was in investigated by the local police and pathologists, the law was very difficult in these matters.
"The university is eager the situation be resolved as quickly as possible to the satisfaction of all surviving relatives." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8344688.stm | Conservationists have taken the first step in their quest to save the world's rarest duck - the Madagascar pochard.
After being hampered by harsh weather and illness, a team successfully set up a small rearing facility for the ducks.
This rescue plan was mounted when scientists realised how close the birds were to the brink of extinction.
The pochards were believed to be extinct in the late 1990s. They were rediscovered in 2006 but are now classified as critically endangered.
The project involved the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT).
The birds were found on only one volcanic lake in Madagascar.
A reconnaissance visit to the lake earlier this year spotted only six females and revealed evidence that chicks of just a few weeks old had died.
So the decision was made to protect the few remaining birds by setting up a captive breeding programme.
Scientists monitored the birds during the breeding season and noted when the female birds were preparing to lay eggs.
"Duck specialists" then flew to Madagascar to bring the precious eggs into captivity.
Dr Glyn Young from Durrell said it was a "race against time" to get to the lake before the eggs started hatching.
"Massive electrical storms had delayed our arrival in the country. Once all the equipment had cleared Customs, we had to wait for three days as a bridge was repaired on the only access road to the lake," he recalled.
"To add to our woes, having finally made it to the lake, we all fell ill!"
But, after all the set-backs, the team commandeered part of a local hotel to create a temporary breeding facility.
They then travelled to the lake and removed a batch of ready-to-hatch eggs from a lake-side nest.
"The eggs were hatched by the side of the lake," said Andrew Terry from Durrell.
"We set up a lab in a tent with all the equipment and the chicks fully hatched out in an incubator."
The day-old chicks were then taken to the holding facility in a four-wheel-drive. "It was a delicate eight-hour journey on really dodgy roads," Mr Terry said.
Peter Cranswick from WWT said: "Safely bringing birds into captivity marks the start of a 20- or 30-year conservation project that will also help restore wetlands across the region."
Eight rescued ducklings are now reported to be doing very well. They represent a very large proportion of the population; as of 2008, only 25 adult birds were counted in the wild.
Work is continuing and the team will attempt to secure two more clutches in the coming few weeks. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10122339 | Google has downplayed privacy fears after it was revealed that its Street View cars had been harvesting data from private wi-fi networks.
The search giant's boss said that he hoped no one would be prosecuted.
Eric Schmidt said that there was "no, harm, no foul", after the firm admitted that it had been collecting snippets of web activity from people's wi-fi.
A US group has called for a Federal "probe", whilst European countries are considering taking action.
"Who was harmed? Name the person," Mr Schmidt said at the company's annual Zeitgeist conference in Watford, UK.
He admitted the incident had done more harm to the firm's reputation than any single person.
In addition, he said, it was "highly unlikely" that any of the collected information was "useful" and that there appeared to "have been no use of that data"
"No one has taken it, done anything with it. It has not been given to anyone," he said.
Google co-founder Larry Page said that it was important to distinguish between "worry versus harm" when it came to privacy online.
Last week, the search firm openly admitted that it had collected information people had sent over unencrypted wi-fi networks for the last three years.
The company was forced to make the admission after German authorities asked to audit data gathered by the firm's Street View cars, which gather pictures around the world for use on Google maps.
In a blog post, Google said that the problem had been traced to 2006 when "an engineer working on an experimental wi-fi project wrote a piece of code that sampled all categories of publicly broadcast wi-fi data".
Its inclusion in the street view cars was a "mistake" it said and had not been authorised.
But Mr Schmidt said he did not want to use the firm's "engineers as an excuse".
"They work for us," he said. "If it is authorised then there is a reason for them to be doing it. If it is unauthorised, it is not authorised."
He said that the firm would not say whether the engineers responsible had left the company for "numerous legal reasons".
"We have very high attention on this matter internally," he said.
The firm's actions are under increasing scrutiny around the world.
A spokesperson for the Information Commissioner's Office in the UK said that Google had been responsible for the "unnecessary and excessive collection and storage of personal data".
It said it took the matter "seriously" but would not take any action on the matter.
Its German counterpart has asked to see the data before it proceeds.
"Google's data should be deleted only once they have been subject to a review, so that we get a picture which additional data were captured," a spokesperson for the country's National Information Commissioner told BBC News.
The Financial Times has reported that German prosecutors and the Czech data protection agency have launched investigations into the issue.
In the US, advocacy group the Consumer Watchdog has written to the Federal Trade Commission urging it to investigate Google.
"Google has demonstrated a history of pushing the envelope and then apologising when its overreach is discovered," said John M Simpson, of the group.
"Given its recent record of privacy abuses, there is absolutely no reason to trust anything the Internet giant claims about its data collection policies."
Google has asked a third party to review the software that caused the problem and examine the gathered data. But the Consumer Watchdog said this would be like " getting to pick and pay the referees in a championship basketball game".
"The Commission must determine what Google knew and when Google knew it. We urge you to launch an investigation immediately," it said in a letter.
Google said it was contacting authorities in the 30 countries where it has Street View to determine what must be done with the data.
"We're not going to delete it unless we're ordered to," said Mr Schmidt. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-31012100 | Around 300 child rebel soldiers in South Sudan sit proudly with their uniforms and rifles as they listen to their commander speak.
There is a sense of excitement because soon they will be released into the care of the United Nations.
"I haven't seen my mother and father since last summer," says Silva, one of the youngest there - aged 11.
All the identities of the children are being protected at the official ceremony to mark their release after years of war - so Silva is not his real name.
"I've seen many people killed when I was on missions," he says.
"I had an AK-47. It was heavy. I was fighting to protect my family and village."
The ceremony is led by Lt Gen Khalid Butrus Bura, one of Silva's commanders in the South Sudan Democratic Army Cobra Faction.
It is the powerful militia in Pibor county in Jonglei state and has been at war with government forces for more than three years - one of numerous conflicts to hit the world's newest nation since it gained independence from Sudan in 2011.
But now there is calm in Pibor and a peace deal has been signed by their leader David Yau Yau, who said he took up arms to win greater rights for his Murle ethnic group, and the government.
Before their release into a specially made UN compound in the village of Gumuruk, the children chant his name "Yau Yau" - their final battle cry.
Now for the first time in his short life Silva has ambition for his future.
"I want to go to school and learn. I don't want to fight anymore; I was scared," he says.
Sitting next to him is 12-year-old Abraham (also not his real name).
He may be a child but he carries the weight of a war veteran.
"I was scared for my life; I felt like I had to fight," says Abraham.
"Two of my sisters were murdered. I too went on missions and watched as people dropped down around me.
"I'd like to go to school now and be an administrator for Pibor county."
The fighting in Pibor is separate from the wider rebellion that erupted in South Sudan in December 2013 in which more than 50,000 have so far died.
The UN believes thousands of children have been forced to fight in that conflict on both sides.
The UN's children's agency says the children being demobilised today will be offered education and psychological support before the slow process of trying to reunite them with their families can begin.
Jonathan Veitch from Unicef says the ceremony was a significant moment and in total 3,000 child fighters will be released.
"It's the first release of its kind and considering there is a large amount of forced recruitment of children in South Sudan's civil war, the fact we can demonstrate we can get young boys out of uniform and into school is a real sign of hope for the future of this country."
The future of these young boys, many of them said they were only protecting their villages and families from government attacks, depends on the commanders who too easily send them to war.
I asked Lt Gen Butrus Bura, who led the children into into war but he also negotiated their release, if he promised not to use them again.
"Yes. I promise. We want the children to have an education," he said.
"We no longer want them in war. They only fought because it was a particular moment in our history. They will never fight again."
Before we left Pibor county we spotted a young former soldier sitting alone outside a UN tent.
He had taken his combat uniform off and told me he was 15. Peter, as we are calling him, looked years younger but was one of the few here who spoke English.
"I am no longer afraid," he said. "I want to school, become a pastor and help my village and family."
Despite the brutality and violence they have experienced, the children of Pibor county now have the chance to begin again. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-47388331 | People struggling to cope with their animals have been urged to seek help after two pugs were tossed from a car while at traffic lights.
The RSPCA said the dogs' experience in Wrexham would have been "scary and traumatic".
It said they were among 145 pets abandoned after Christmas, 92 of them dogs.
The charity said animal abandonment was a problem and urged people to hand over unwanted pets to rescue centres.
There are a number of reasons for people abandoning animals - with reasons including people growing bored of Christmas presents or dumping them in the summer rather than find care when they go on holiday.
RSPCA Cymru superintendent Martyn Hubbard said: "Tragically, many are carelessly abandoned, while others are advertised online and on social media with owners offering them 'free to a good home' or trying to cash in on their pet's worth.
"When owners are unable to cope, whether that be with an animal's behaviour, the costs of keeping the pet or other things in their life take over, they opt to dump them."
Inspector Rachael Davies said the pugs were now recovering after they were dumped on 20 February and one of them had been traced to owners in Essex.
"Put simply, this is a disgusting way to treat animals."
RSPCA figures show month-on-month calls about abandonments remaining consistent.
In the past two years, there were increases in the numbers of dogs abandoned in January compared to December: from 91 to 112 in 2016/2017; 112 to 113 in 2017 to 2018; and 83 to 92 in 2018/2019.
In January, RSPCA Cymru received the most calls (13) about dog abandonments in Cardiff, while there were nine in Torfaen and none in Vale of Glamorgan.
All local authorities provide a dog warden service and it is their responsibility to round up stray dogs.
RSPCA Cymru said it did not have the resources to pick up all healthy ones, but urged anyone finding a sick or injured stray to contact them.
The spokeswoman said by law all dogs should be micro-chipped and have a collar with the owner's contact details, meaning it could then potentially reunite them.
There were 129 calls to RSPCA Cymru about all animal abandonments in December this year and 145 in January. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8298417.stm | Clashes have broken out in East Jerusalem amid high tensions after Palestinian groups called for a day of protest over access to al-Aqsa mosque.
Eleven police officers were injured and at least two Palestinians arrested as youths threw stones.
But Friday prayers at the flashpoint holy site passed off largely peacefully amid a heavy Israeli police presence.
Meanwhile, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said talks with US envoy George Mitchell were "constructive".
Mr Mitchell was due to meet with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Friday, and to hold further talks with Mr Netanyahu's aides on Saturday.
US attempts to restart peace negotiations appear to have stalled over Israel's refusal to meet US and Palestinian demands that it freeze all settlement activity in the West Bank.
Israel has made clear that it intends to keep building in East Jerusalem, where the Palestinians want the capital of their future state.
The Palestinian Authority has accused Israel of seeking to "Judaise" East Jerusalem, and of allowing extremists access to the al-Aqsa mosque compound while denying it to Muslims.
Thousands of extra Israeli police were deployed on Friday after sporadic clashes over the past two weeks, apparently sparked by Palestinian fears that Jewish extremists were seeking to enter the third holiest site in Islam.
The complex, known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif and Jews as Temple Mount, houses both al-Aqsa mosque and the Jewish holy site, the Western Wall.
The Islamist group Hamas had called for a "day of rage" on Friday, local media said, while its rival Fatah had urged a strike and peaceful protests in support of the mosque.
The Islamic Movement - a political organisation based in Israel - had urged Muslim citizens of Israel to flock to Jerusalem to "defend al-Aqsa".
On Friday Israeli police maintained restrictions under which only female worshippers and men over the age of 50 were permitted to enter the mosque area.
The site and surrounding area in the Old City remained calm, with many shops closed.
But in the Ras al-Amoud area of East Jerusalem, masked Palestinian youths began hurling stones at police in riot gear.
Clashes were reported at Qalandia checkpoint near the West Bank city of Ramallah.
And the Islamic movement Hamas held a rally in the Gaza Strip, which it controls.
Tensions have been high since 30 people were injured in a riot at the al-Aqsa complex in late September.
Palestinians threw stones at visitors they believed were right-wing Jews, although Israeli police say they were French tourists.
The site has been a flashpoint for violence in the past, including the beginning of the intifada or uprising that started in 2000. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3245299.stm | The poet, playwright and children's author Charles Causley, famed for the poem I Saw a Jolly Hunter, has died aged 86.
His career included winning the prestigious Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry.
The Cornwall-born writer also served on the Arts Council's poetry panel and was made a CBE in 1986.
He was a popular choice for poet laureate after the death of Ted Hughes and worked as literary editor of two BBC radio magazines.
He started writing in the 1930s and published more than 50 books and collections of verses for adults and children.
Former Grand Bard of the Cornish Gorsedd, John Bolitho, paid a glowing tribute to Mr Causley.
"I think he was Cornwall's greatest poet and he should have been made poet laureate years ago," he said.
"I always liked his Navy poems. They were tremendously perceptive and illuminating and wonderfully recognisable."
Mr Causley's first works included plays entitled Runaway and The Conquering Hero.
In World War II he served in the Royal Navy, and recounted his experiences in a series of short stories called Hands to Dance and in poetry.
In the late 1990s a campaign was launched to make him the first Cornish poet laureate.
Critics say Causley was a consistent writer through his long career, able to keep a ballad alive and adapt to changing forms.
"All his numerous literary awards and prizes were greeted with his typical modesty" |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/kent/8604318.stm | Work to restore a Victorian water-powered lift at Folkestone which closed last year is getting under way.
The Grade II-listed Leas Lift on cliffs was built in 1885 and carried passengers for the last time on 30 June after Shepway council's lease ran out.
It is one of the oldest water lifts in the UK and transported people between the sea front and the promenade.
Its owner, Lord Radnor, said a company had been appointed to carry out repair work and it would reopen in June.
He described it as a popular landmark which was being preserved for the benefit of the town.
The work will involve the removal of the existing carriages to a specialist engineering works. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-africa-46095439 | That's all from BBC Africa Live for this week. You can keep up-to-date with what's happening across the continent by listening to the Africa Today podcast or check the BBC News website.
Quote Message: Hold a true friend with both your hands." from Sent by Kathi Giberman in Chester, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Hold a true friend with both your hands."
Sent by Kathi Giberman in Chester, Nova Scotia, Canada.
And we leave you with this photo of a fisherman gathering his net underwater, off the coast of Madagascar.
It's one of our favourite shots from the past week.
We reported earlier on the tragedy of a father and son who both died in attacks while owners of the same hotel in Somalia's capital.
Renowned Somali businessman Abdifatah Abdirashid "Liqeyte" was among at least 10 people killed in today's deadly bomb blasts.
He was the owner of Sahafi Hotel which was targeted by al-Shabab militants. They said they attacked the hotel because government officials stayed there.
Abdirashid took over ownership of the hotel from his father - Abdirashid Mohamed - who was killed in a similar attack in 2015.
Sahafi Hotel had been popular with visiting foreigners because it had good views across the capital city and was seen as being relatively secure.
During the civil war in the 1990s, foreign journalists were known to shelter there.
Read more: Why does al-Shabab target hotels?
A dance craze which involves pretending to faint has taken South Africa by storm.
Students and revellers are sharing videos online of themselves doing the #IdibalaChallenge - falling to the ground as they dance to the song.
But it comes with a health warning.
The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) has told people not to endanger their lives, or those of other road users, as they simulate fainting while they are behind the wheel.
"It is in the same category as texting and driving," said RTMC spokesman Simon Zwane. "Many fatal crashes are caused by this. Crashes happen within a split of a second and drivers should keep full concentration on the road."
King Monada is the artist behind the hit song known as Malwedhe (or Idibala) which loosely translates as "fainting", in the Khelobedu language of Limpopo province.
I have an illness. If you date me, don’t joke about dumping me. I'm likely to faint. If you cheat, I will faint. If you don’t give me money. I will faint. If you don’t come home, I will faint. If you switch off your phone, I will faint."
A Ugandan academic who was arrested and detained for insulting President Yoweri Museveni’s late mother in posts on her Facebook page has rejected bail, saying she wants to stay in prison to teach other women how to use the social media platform.
Stella Nyanzi's trial is due to start on 22 November.
Last year, she was charged with cyber harassment for referring to President Yoweri Museveni as a "pair of buttocks".
Quote Message: What are they investigating - that Yoweri Museveni is still offended? I will go and be with those ladies in Luzira [Prison] teaching them how to write on Facebook. When they are released they can write as much as I do.
What are they investigating - that Yoweri Museveni is still offended? I will go and be with those ladies in Luzira [Prison] teaching them how to write on Facebook. When they are released they can write as much as I do.
Quote Message: As a writer... A poetess... writing to a broad group of people, I write criticising the regime."
As a writer... A poetess... writing to a broad group of people, I write criticising the regime."
Cameroonian twins Linda and Manuela Eloundou were inspired to start playing tennis when they saw Serena Williams wearing the colours of their national flag.
They each hope to become champions and win a grand slam.
BBC What's New? went to meet them.
A community-based newspaper in the Indian capital, Delhi, is providing a voice for Africans living there.
Africans make up to 25% of the population in the city's Khirkee village area, but often face discrimination and struggle to integrate.
Khirkee Voice co-publisher Malini Kochupillai told the BBC that they are "providing a voice for the unheard to be heard".
It has emerged that the owner of Hotel Sahafi in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, was among those killed by today's bomb attack outside the building.
He had inherited the business from his father, who was himself killed in a similar attack on the hotel in 2015, by Islamist group al-Shabab, which has also said it carried out today's attack.
It said it targeted the hotel because government officials stayed there.
In the 2015 attack on Hotel Salafi 15 people were killed, including its owner.Image caption: In the 2015 attack on Hotel Salafi 15 people were killed, including its owner.
What else could Zakzaky's 'meal budget' buy?
...$322 per day would buy you *a lot* of grilled fish.Image caption: ...$322 per day would buy you *a lot* of grilled fish.
We reported earlier on how a Nigeria TV station was forced to apologise for leaking a recording in which a government minister is heard to say that high-profile prisoner, Ibraheem Zakzaky, is fed meals costing $9,600 (£7,400) per month. That works out around $322 per day.
So what else could that money get you?
For starters, that sum would feed 17 ordinary prison inmates in Nigeria for one year.
Or, 208 inmates for one month.
Many Nigerians have questioned what Zakzaky could possibly be eating that would amount to this sum.
Here's an idea: In an average Italian restaurant in Abuja, a platter of spaghetti Cartaccio – consisting of spaghetti tossed with classic tomato sauce and king prawn – costs $14, a bottle of Eva non-alcoholic fruit wine costs up to $14, while a large and well-garnished barbecued fish also costs $14.
Zakzaky would have to drink seven bottles of Eva, eat eight plates of Cartaccio plus eight plates of barbecued fish each day to exhaust $322.
That would take some eating.
Gruesome pictures of the aftermath of the bomb blast in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, are being shared on Twitter.
There are conflicting reports about the number of fatalities. Reuters news agency reports that 20 have been killed while AFP news agency puts the number at 10.
Guards at Hotel Sahafi and police officers opened fire after suicide attackers detonated two bombs in a car close to the hotel and the offices of the Criminal Investigation Department in Mogadishu, news agency Reuters quotes police as saying.
A third blast then went off in the busy street 20 minutes later.
A police officer told Reuters that 17 people had been killed in the blast but the news agency says its photographer has counted 20 bodies.
No group has claimed responsibility, but militant group al-Shabab has been behind previous attacks in the capital.
At least 17 people have been killed in a bomb blast in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, news agency Reuters reports, quoting a police officer.
He said suicide attackers using two car bombs were behind the attack which happened at a hotel near the headquarters of Somalia's Criminal Investigations Department.
Three bomb blasts are now known to have hit Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, where there have also been reports of gunfire.
It not yet known if there have been any casualties.
We will continue to monitor events and bring you updates.
Reports are coming in of two, consecutive bomb blasts in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu.
We will bring you updates as this story develops.
Hauwa Ojeifo set up a mental health helpline for women in Nigeria after suffering from depression herself.
People seeking support can go to the She Writes Woman walk-in centre, or call its 24/7 helpline.
Quote Message: We have a misinformed narrative. What we've been told for generations about mental illness is: 'You've done something bad and it's caught up with you'.
We have a misinformed narrative. What we've been told for generations about mental illness is: 'You've done something bad and it's caught up with you'.
An Ethiopian Airlines plane has landed in Somalia's capital Mogadishu - the first such flight in four decades.
All flights were halted in the 1970s after a border conflict broke out between the two countries.
The political landscape in the Horn of Africa region has changed dramatically since April, when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power.
He is currently holding a meeting in the Ethiopian city of Gondar with the Somali president, Mohamed Abdulahi Farmajo and the Eritrean president, Isias Afwerki.
The former rivals are looking at ways to boost trade between their countries.
Didier Drogba has lost what could be the final game of his career, as Phoenix Rising were beaten 1-0 by Louisville City FC in the United Soccer League Cup final.
The former Chelsea striker, 40, has said this will be his last season.
In April 2017, Drogba became player-co-owner of Phoenix Rising in the second tier of US football.
Fellow owner Berke Bakay thanked him for his "amazing contributions to the beautiful sport" after Friday's loss.
Drogba scored a goal in each of the club's three play-off matches en route to their first ever USL Cup final.
"You have laid the foundation of something really special that we are all going to enjoy for many years to come," tweeted Bakay.
Before the final, Bakay told BBC World Service that Drogba would be moving into the boardroom after retires.
European Union election observers say there were only a small number of irregularities in Madagascar's election on Wednesday.
The head of the EU team, Cristian Preda, said these would not affect the credibility of the poll.
On Thursday one of the presidential candidates, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, denounced the election as fraudulent.
He stepped down as president in September in order to run for office again - as required under Madagascar's constitution.
Results from just 6% of polling stations so far give a clear lead to two other former presidents, Andry Rajoelina and Marc Ravalomanana.
Hugh Masekela, the "father of South African Jazz" who died this year aged 78, is to be celebrated with two tribute concerts - one in Johannesburg, and another at the UK's London Jazz Festival.
Among those due to perform on the night are two of his long-time friends and collaborators -Zimbabwean musician Oliver Mtukudzi and Sibongile Khumalo, a South African singer.
A Nigerian TV station has apologised for leaking a recording in which a minister was heard to say that the government spends 3.5m naira ($9,600; £7,400) per month on feeding a high-profile prisoner.
The Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed was reported to have made the disclosure off the record about imprisoned Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) leader Ibraheem Zakzaky.
Members of IMN, a pro-Iran Shia Muslism sect, held protests in the capital, Abuja, earlier this month calling for the release of Zakzaky.Some protesters were killed by Nigerian police, who arrested 400 others. The exact number of deaths has been disputed - the army says six people died, while Amnesty International says there were dozens of fatalities. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england-birmingham-45454823/autistic-boy-excluded-from-birmingham-school | The autistic schoolboy at home for 300 days Jump to media player Alex Palmer has been permanently excluded from his school in Birmingham.
Autistic boy missed five years of school Jump to media player Callum has tried mainstream and special schools without success, his mother says.
Summer school for autistic children Jump to media player It is hoped autistic children will gain stability and independence by continuing to interact with others.
Autistic boy sent to school 50 miles away Jump to media player Twelve-year-old William Lunn from Snodland, Kent, is being sent to a residential school 50 miles from his home.
School's voicemail angers mother Jump to media player A staff member talks about an autistic pupil thinking they have hung up the phone.
Teenager's film on having autism Jump to media player Teenager Rosie King, who lives with Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism, is appearing in a BBC Newsround special which aims to raise awareness about the condition.
Alex Palmer was at home for 300 days after being permanently excluded from his school in Birmingham.
The five-year-old has autism and his behaviour, which can sometimes be aggressive, proved difficult for the school to handle.
His mother Rachael Palmer says she does not blame the teachers or local authority but a system in which there are not enough specialist staff and schools.
Birmingham City Council says it does not get enough government money to deal with the demand for specialist provision. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11430863 | An Iranian court has sentenced a prominent Iranian-Canadian blogger to more than 19 years in jail, rights groups and Iranian media say.
Hossein Derakhshan was charged with "propagating against the regime" and "co-operating with hostile states".
Mr Derakhshan was arrested in 2008 during a visit to the country.
He is credited with launching Iran's blogging revolution. Originally critical of the government, he later backed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Derakhshan was also sentenced for promoting counter-revolutionary groups, insulting Islamic thought and religious figures and managing obscene websites, Mashreq news website reported.
Judicial sources said he could appeal the ruling.
After moving to Toronto, Canada, from Tehran in 2000, he posted simple instructions in Farsi on how to publish blogs - thus helping to spark an explosion of blogging in Iran.
He paid a highly-publicised visit to Israel - Iran's arch-enemy - in 2006, saying he wanted to act as a bridge between the two countries.
Pressure group the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran called Derakhshan "a prisoner of conscience, prosecuted and sentenced solely for his opinions and writings".
The group says there are more than 500 prisoners of conscience in Iranian jails.
Iranian opposition bloggers continue to be active despite a government crackdown since disputed elections last year that saw President Ahmadinejad re-elected.
Opposition leaders said the election was rigged. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/technology-47859384/online-safety-the-urgency-is-huge | Online safety: 'The urgency is huge' Jump to media player Ian Russell's daughter, Molly, took her own life in 2017. Ian believes Instagram is partly to blame for her death.
Why I played on through brain surgery Jump to media player Jazz musician Musa Manzini was kept awake for part of his surgery to have a tumour removed.
Instagram and my one-in-a-million illness Jump to media player Zoe Buxton is a fashion and lifestyle blogger whose body is slowly turning to bone.
Fourteen-year-old Molly Russell took her own life in 2017. After she died her family found distressing material about depression and suicide on her Instagram account.
Her father Ian Russell spoke to the BBC about the Online Harms White Paper, which proposes that internet sites could be fined or blocked if they fail to follow a code of practice. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19067634 | Microsoft is overhauling its free webmail service, dropping the Hotmail brand it has used since acquiring the product in 1998, and adopting the name Outlook.com.
The revamped service will help sort messages as they arrive and allow users to make internet calls on Skype.
It said the move would help tackle the problem of "cluttered" inboxes.
The action may also be designed to win over users of Google's rival Gmail service.
Microsoft said that in many cases email had become a "chore" because its users accounts had become "overloaded" with material.
Its solution is to automatically sort messages into different areas to distinguish between emails from contacts, newsletters, package delivery notices, social network posts and other identifiers determined by the account holder.
In addition it is taking steps to link the Outlook account with other services the user might have subscribed to.
"We are giving you the first email service that is connected to Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google, and soon, Skype, to bring relevant context and communications to your email," the firm's Chris Jones said on its blog.
"In the Outlook.com inbox, your personal email comes alive with photos of your friends, recent status updates and tweets that your friend has shared with you, the ability to chat and video call - all powered by an always up-to-date contact list that is connected to your social networks."
In what may be perceived as a dig at Google, Mr Jones added that the firm would not scan email content or attachments in order to sell the information to advertisers or others.
He also announced that web versions of the firm's Office apps were built-in, potentially helping it counter competition from other web-based application suits such as Google Docs and Zoho Docs.
Outlook.com also links up with Microsoft's Skydrive cloud storage, allowing users to send photos and other documents via the service to avoid the risk of going over their attachment size limit.
This could pose a threat to the rival Google Drive service as well as Dropbox, Sugarsync and others.
Mr Jones said the firm had built a "brand new service from the ground up". But Matt Cain, an analyst at the tech consultants Gartner, played down the suggestion of a major leap forwards.
"Outlook.com represents reverse-consumerisation - taking a ubiquitous business tool and recrafting it for the consumer market," he told BBC.
"There really is no new technology here - the filtering tools have been around for some time as well as the social network integration.
"What is new is the cleaned up user interface, and the marketing spin, and the tight integration with office web apps and Skydrive, and the forthcoming integration with Skype."
Microsoft is offering the service in a "preview" mode for the time being and has not announced an official release date.
While it advises users to upgrade, Hotmail subscribers can stick with the old system if they wish - at least for now.
Those who do make the change keep their @hotmail, @msn or @live.com email address ending, but can also add an @outlook.com address to their account if they wish. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8407142.stm | The BBC's Richard Scott took a drive in the simulator used to test people's reactions while driving on the phone.
More drivers are using hand-held mobile phones than before tougher penalties were introduced two years ago, the Transport Research Laboratory has said.
It found 2.6% of car drivers used hand-held phones in 2006 - when fines rose to £60 and three points could be added to licences - compared with 2.8% now.
Phone-using drivers are four times more likely to crash, the TRL added.
Ministers say work continues to highlight the dangers. The TRL study involved more than 14,000 vehicles.
The report's authors believe there is no reason to think the picture at the 30 sites studied in London is not the same right across the UK.
Researchers said the 2.6% of car drivers using hand-held mobile phones in 2006 almost halved to 1.4% the following year, when tougher penalties were brought in.
The fine was doubled to £60 and three points were put on offenders' licences. But since then the number has been rising.
And it is the same picture with taxi and van drivers. They too are now more likely to use a hand-held mobile phone than they were before the penalties were increased.
The researchers split drivers into three age groups and found women aged 17-29 were most likely to use a hand-held mobile while driving. For men, it was the 30-59 group.
"Your reaction time is likely to be slower, you're more likely to drift across into the adjacent lanes and you're less aware of what's going on around you," said Dr Nick Reed from TRL.
"You're less likely to check the mirrors and know there are vehicles there, so you're at a much greater risk of having an accident."
The same report shows hands-free mobile use by car drivers has risen consistently, from 1.2% in 2006 to 4.8% in 2009.
But safety campaigners argue hands-free mobiles are little better because most of the problems come from the concentration needed to have a conversation while driving.
Sarah Fatica, from road safety charity Brake, said the figures were a cause for concern.
"It's incredibly worrying that people still don't take seriously the dangers that talking on your phone while driving pose," she said.
AA President Edmund King: "If you call someone and it sounds like they're in the car, you shouldn't have that conversation"
"The biggest problem is that your concentration is impaired, and that could result in you crashing and hurting yourself, hurting somebody else, or worst of all killing somebody."
AA president Edmund King said: "I think we need more police campaigns, I think we need more publicity campaigns.
"If you think back to seat-belt wearing, 'clunk, click, every trip' and the Jimmy Savile stuff way back gradually had an effect but it does take time."
Kevan Craft, from Runcorn, Cheshire, suffered from whiplash after a driver who was on her mobile phone crashed into his car at 60mph. He said tougher penalties were needed.
"I'd like to see a 12-month ban similar to a drink-driving offence, and where it can be proved an accident was caused by the driver being on a mobile phone, then a possible custodial sentence."
Stephen Ladyman, the former transport minister who introduced the tougher penalties, said the legislation might need to be modified.
"The government is probably going to have to move to a situation where it's not just the police who can issue you a fine," he said.
"Perhaps they're going to have to give powers to Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) or even traffic wardens if they spot you using your hand-held phone."
In response, the Home Office said it currently had no plans to give extra powers to PCSOs.
The government said in a separate statement: "We run publicity campaigns to highlight the dangers of calling or texting at the wheel.
"However, some people are still needlessly risking their own lives and putting others in danger for the sake of a text or a call."
In 2006, a total of 166,880 fixed penalty notices were issued for driving while using a hands-held mobile, compared with 122,000 in 2007, according to Home Office figures. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-42698981 | The controversial claim that the UK sends £350m a week to the EU was a "gross underestimate", Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has said.
He told the Guardian the UK's contribution was already £362m a week and would rise to £438m by the end of the post-Brexit transition period.
Vote Leave's claim that £350m could go to the NHS instead was hotly disputed during the EU referendum.
Tory MP Anna Soubry said Mr Johnson had to "man up" and stop "conning people".
Labour accused Mr Johnson of returning "to the scene of his previous crimes".
A campaign bus used by Vote Leave, including Mr Johnson himself, during the referendum campaign was emblazoned with the slogan: "We send the EU £350 million a week - let's fund our NHS instead."
It was widely criticised because £350m per week is an approximate sum for the UK's "gross contribution" to Brussels.
It doesn't take account of the country's rebate of £75m a week which means that the true amount leaving the Treasury's coffers is significantly lower.
Does the £350m claim stack up?
Mr Johnson told the Guardian "there was an error on the side of the bus."
"We grossly underestimated the sum over which we would be able to take back control."
The paper said the foreign secretary "conceded that the leave campaign had used a gross figure", but he said about half of the total eventually saved could be redirected to fund public services.
"As and when the cash becomes available - and it won't until we leave - the NHS should be at the very top of the list," he added.
Among those to criticise Mr Johnson's use of the figure was the head of the UK's statistics watchdog, Sir David Norgrove, who called it "a clear misuse of official statistics".
Reacting to Mr Johnson's latest remarks, Labour's Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer accused him of having "no shame".
And Ms Soubry, a pro-EU ex-minister who has rebelled against the government several times over Brexit, said she was "surprised and disappointed" the foreign secretary had chosen to resurrect the claims.
"What I do know is that this is not going to be additional funds that will go to the NHS - and that was an important part of the trick that was played on the British people," she told the BBC's Daily Politics.
"Boris is being irresponsible to continue to con people in this way. He should be honest about the challenges that Brexit poses to our country.
"This is grown up, this is proper stuff, he's got to man up to the position he holds."
Meanwhile, Eloise Todd, from the anti-Brexit campaign Best For Britain, said: "This is a yet another untruth from Boris, a man who has become so obsessed with the lie he slapped on the side of the bus."
Mr Johnson was speaking after fellow Leave campaigner Nigel Farage last week suggested he was "warming" to the idea of holding a second referendum in order to "kill off" the Remain campaign for a generation.
However, the foreign secretary rejected the idea, saying the first referendum had caused "an awful lot of heartache and soul-searching".
"I'm not convinced that the public is absolutely gagging for another Brexit referendum," he added.
Mr Johnson said he believed the result of any second vote would be "pretty much the same" or a heavier victory for Leave.
Boris Johnson: Does his £350m a week Brexit claim add up? |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8070537.stm | The number of UK swine flu cases has reached 186 after a seriously ill Glaswegian man and an adult in the East Midlands were confirmed with the virus.
The Scottish government confirmed the 37-year-old man, who is being treated in hospital for a respiratory infection, was Scotland's 14th case.
He had been suspected of having the flu and has underlying health problems.
The other new case of the H1N1 virus was a man from Nottinghamshire, the Health Protection Agency said.
The Glaswegian man, who was admitted to the city's Victoria Infirmary on Thursday, has possible links to other cases.
Five of the ten possible cases under investigation in are members of his family, the Scottish government said.
The Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: "It is not yet clear to what extent his infection with the H1N1 virus may have been a contributory factor to his condition or whether it is incidental.
"Without at all wanting to diminish the gravity of this development for this particular family, the threat to the general population in Scotland remains low."
England's new case was an adult from the East Midlands who recently returned from abroad.
The HPA said a further 155 possible cases of swine flu remain under investigation.
On Tuesday, Welford Primary School in Birmingham saw its confirmed cases jump by 44 to 50 - just five were adults.
More people connected to the school are expected to be diagnosed with the virus, HPA officials said on Tuesday.
The school, which has more than 400 pupils and 60 children in its nursery, notified the HPA after spotting a higher than usual number of pupil absences early last week.
It confirmed its first case of swine flu on Friday, five more over the bank holiday weekend and 44 on Tuesday.
All those confirmed with the virus have been responding well to treatment, the HPA says.
Welford, which is currently closed for half term, said a "deep clean" of its premises would take place during the holiday period.
The Department of Health spokesman said the current cases in England and Wales had so far been mild, and the strategy of containing the spread with antiviral drugs appeared to have been effective.
"But we must not be complacent - it is right to prepare for the possibility of a global pandemic," he said.
"The UK's arrangements are continuing to ensure that we are well-placed to deal with this new infection."
About 13,000 people around the world have been diagnosed with the virus. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6584853.stm | The BBC News website invited a panel of Eurovision Song Contest experts to listen to this year's 42 entries and cast their votes for the songs they thought would succeed in Helsinki.
Now that the competition is over for another year, it is time to assess how well they did.
The panel's members included former contest winner Sandra Kim (Belgium 1986) and dedicated Eurovision enthusiasts from across Europe.
Germany's entry by Roger Cicero collected the most votes among the experts, although it was Serbian singer Marija Serifovic who won with her ballad Molitva.
The performer: Roger Cicero - whose ancestry is Romanian - is the son of jazz musician Eugen Cicero and studied in the Netherlands. His debut album was 2006's best-selling record in Germany by a homegrown artist.
Our panel said: "Fabulous - a proper song and singer."
Germany's form: The country has taken part in almost every contest since 1956, but they have only won once in 1982 with Nicole's A Little Peace.
Result: Roger Cicero's slick performance failed to capture the Eurovision zeitgeist and finished a lowly 19th.
The song: Vampires Are Alive is an uptempo piece of Europop with the odd film score moment - and Dracula-friendly lyrics.
The performer: DJ Bobo has been one of Switzerland's best-known pop acts since the mid-1990s and is renowned for his colourful, themed concerts, with a Vampire tour on the cards next year.
Our panel said: "A very powerful entry indeed... DJ Bobo has found a song that could please most Eurovision voters."
Switzerland's form: The country won the first contest in 1956 and Celine Dion triumphed in 1988. DJ Bobo must qualify for the grand final.
The hotly-tipped Swiss act made an unexpected exit from Thursday's semi-final.
The song: Molitva (A Prayer) is a heartfelt ballad which gradually builds to a powerful climax.
The performer: Music runs in the family of 22-year-old Marija Serifovic, who began singing as a child. She has won a clutch of prizes in Serbia and neighbouring countries.
Our panel said: "Marija has great voice, the music is strong and powerful with great lyrics. It doesn't try too hard - builds beautifully."
Serbia's form: This is the country's first appearance in its own right after Montenegro seceded in 2006. Serbia and Montenegro finished second on their debut in 2004.
Result: Balladeer Marija Serifovic overhauled Ukrainian drag queen Verka Serdyuchka to win the contest.
The song: Visionary Dream is an exhilarating mix of Georgian folk tunes, pounding beats and soaring vocals - parallels to Bjork and Kate Bush spring to mind.
The performer: Sopho Khalvshi, 21, was a winner at a song contest held in Latvia last year, and was selected to represent Georgia at the contest. Her debut album contains songs which were shortlisted for Helsinki.
Our panel said: "An amazing song - very unusual. It could do surprisingly well."
Georgia's form: The former Soviet republic is appearing for the first time.
Result: Sopho came 12th, narrowly missing out on an automatic place for Georgia in the 2008 final.
The song: I Love You Mi Vida is sung in Spanish with a smattering of English. A thumping pop tune with a very definite Latin feel.
The performers: Four piece boyband D'Nash - Mikel, Basty, Javi and Ony - are all in their early 20s and formed last year. They won a long selection process to represent Spain at Eurovision.
Our jury said: "Passionate song which is distinctively Spanish. A good dance routine is likely to go along with this."
Spain's form: The country's only victories to date came way back in 1968/9. The past two years has seen the Spanish floundering near the foot of the scoreboard.
Result: The contest's only boy band came a disappointing 20th place, failing to reverse Spain's faltering fortunes.
The song: Bouncy, catchy pop song Yassou Maria is performed in English, but has a definite Greek musical feel and is all about a drop dead gorgeous woman.
The performer: Sarbel, 25, was born in London to a Cypriot mother and Lebanese father. He saw off two seasoned Greek stars to win the right to go to Helsinki.
Our jury said: "The refrain is very easy to remember, so with a good show, Sarbel could win for Greece."
Greece's form: After decades in the Eurovision wilderness, the country has hit a purple patch, hitting the top 10 in the past three years, including Helena Paparizou's victory in 2005.
Result: Despite a slightly shaky performance, Sarbel captured seventh place.
The song: The French language song Comme Ci, Comme Ca is a solid dance tune with a moment straight from Ayia Napa's club scene.
The performer: Evridiki, 39, is an experienced Eurovision artist, finishing 11th in both 1992 and 1994. She was also a backing singer on three other occasions in the 1980s.
Our jury said: "The French lyrics give this song more personality and everyone will remember 'comme ci, comme ca'. It's a very strong song."
Cyprus' form: The Mediterranean island nation entered the Eurovision fray in 1981, and has since attained a best of fifth place on three occasions.
Cyprus was not among the 10 qualifiers from the semi-final.
The song: Water is a fusion of traditional Bulgarian vocals, crashing percussion and a techno beat.
The performers: "Full-toned and tough" female vocalist Elitsa Todorova studied folk singing and percussion before taking her music all over the world.
Stoyan Yankoulov is credited as being Bulgaria's best drum player, inventing a new form of percussion. The pair have performed together for five years.
Our jury said: "A modern tune with lots of drums and energy. It is sincere and not manufactured for Eurovision, which makes it stand out."
Bulgaria's form: The Balkan nation took part in the 2005/6 contests, but failed to qualify for the grand final.
Result: The pair impressed in Bulgaria's first final appearance, finishing fifth.
The song: Work Your Magic is a pop song with an orchestral flourish which has all the makings of a James Bond theme. Lyricist Karen Kavaleryan penned the words for Russia's 2006 song, which came second.
The performer: Dmitry Koldun - who has dropped his first name for Eurovision - won the sixth series of Russian talent show Factory of Stars, before which he studied chemistry at university.
Our jury said: "A good singer with good looks and a good tune."
Belarus' form: The former Soviet republic's three Eurovision attempts have failed to result in qualification for the final.
Result: A classy performance surpassed the expectations of the panel, coming sixth.
The song: A slice of sassy, streetwise contemporary pop which UK group Girls Aloud would be proud to call their own.
The performers: Female trio Serebro (Silver) were formed by Russian music producer Max Fadeev especially for the Eurovision Song Contest. Lead singer Elena Temnikova took part in a TV talent search show in 2003.
Our jury said: "A very good, up-to-date song, extremely well-produced and not formatted for Eurovision at all."
Russia's form: This vast nation hit its peak of second place with Dima Bilan in Athens last year, a spot they also attained in 2000.
Result: Serebro's smouldering stage presence catapulted them to third place. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/8095535.stm | Coastguards have criticised footage posted on YouTube of youths taking part in a practice known as "tombstoning" from cliffs in Dorset.
The footage, which was uploaded three days ago, shows three males jumping from Pulpit Rock, Portland.
Sonny Wells, 21, who was paralysed after jumping from South Parade Pier, Southsea, a year ago, told the BBC, "it's just not worth the risk".
A new campaign has been launched by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA).
The 38-second YouTube clip is just one of a number shot by the public and posted online showing stunts across Dorset and Hampshire.
On Wednesday, a 14-year-old boy suffered head and arm injuries after "tombstoning" off Ilfracombe Pier, Devon.
In May two men died after they jumped from cliffs in Whitburn, South Tyneside and Milford Haven, Pembrokshire, in separate incidents.
Former soldier Mr Wells, of Waterlooville, Hampshire, is now in a wheelchair.
He was told by doctors he will be paralysed from the chest down after breaking his neck from the 9m (30ft) fall into 1m (3ft) of water.
He said: "There has been enough about me over the last year and people are still doing it.
"You can't stop people from doing it. If they end up in a wheelchair then it's their own fault. It's not worth the risk."
The MCA said that in the last two years there had been nine deaths and 18 serious injuries from people taking parting the craze.
Spokesman Fred Caygill said: "Already this year we have seen two people die from this activity of jumping from heights into unknown depths of water.
"There's a very good probability in that we will see more injuries or possibly deaths from the activity before the year is out."
The MCA has launched a poster campaign, Don't Jump into the Unknown, which has a barcode featured on it for teenagers to scan with their mobile phone linking to a website. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-isle-of-man-42050867 | The redevelopment on a former RAF base on the Isle of Man could be a "catalyst for regeneration," an MHK has said.
The Department of Infrastructure (DoI) said there had been "great interest" in the RAF Jurby site, following a request for development suggestions in July.
Julie Edge MHK said there had been a "broad range" of submissions, including plans for housing and workshops.
A DoI spokesman said the plans for the 25-acre site would be assessed ahead a report to political members.
RAF Jurby opened in 1939 and helped protect Belfast and Liverpool from air raids during World War Two.
It was also used for training and was home to a variety of operational squadrons.
After closing in 1963, it was used as a diversion airfield for Ronaldsway Airport until 1972.
Ms Edge said she hoped the redevelopment of the site would "provide jobs" and be a "catalyst for the further regeneration of the north of the island".
The DoI spokesman said there had been a high level of engagement among local residents in the submissions process and other ideas for the site included housing start-up businesses and leisure and recreational facilities. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-29627766 | A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced the Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr to death, his family says.
Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr's brother said he was found guilty of seeking "foreign meddling" in the kingdom, "disobeying" its rulers and taking up arms against the security forces.
The cleric was a vocal supporter of the mass anti-government protests that erupted in Eastern Province in 2011.
His arrest two years ago, during which he was shot, triggered days of unrest.
Oil-rich Eastern Province is home to a Shia majority that has long complained of marginalisation at the hands of the Sunni royal family.
Protests began there in February 2011 after the start of the pro-democracy uprising in neighbouring Bahrain, which has a Shia majority and a Sunni royal family.
The Saudi authorities deny discriminating against Shia and blame Iran for stirring up discontent.
Sheikh Nimr's brother Mohammed said on Twitter that he had been sentenced to death by Riyadh's Specialised Criminal Court, which tries terrorism cases, on Wednesday morning.
A statement by the cleric's family described the verdict as "discretionary", saying the judge had the option of imposing a lighter sentence, according to the Associated Press. It also warned that the trial had been "political" and had set a "dangerous precedent for decades to come".
When Sheikh Nimr, who holds the rank of ayatollah, went on trial in March 2013 prosecutors called for his execution by "crucifixion", a punishment which in Saudi Arabia involves beheading followed by public display of the decapitated body.
Human rights groups expressed concern at the time that he would not receive a fair trial. They also said he had still not been given access to adequate medical care for the gunshot wounds he received during his arrest in July 2012, something denied by the authorities.
Police shot Sheikh Nimr in the leg four times in disputed circumstances as they detained him after a car chase in Eastern Province's Qatif district.
Officials said he rammed a security forces vehicle, leading to a gun battle. However, his family disputed the allegation that he resisted arrest and insisted that he did not own a weapon.
The cleric was held for eight months before being charged and reportedly spent the first four in an isolation cell at a prison hospital in Riyadh.
Activists and relatives say Sheikh Nimr, who has a wide following among Shia in Eastern Province and other states, supported only peaceful protests and eschewed all violent opposition to the government.
In 2011, he told the BBC that he supported "the roar of the word against authorities rather than weapons... the weapon of the word is stronger than bullets, because authorities will profit from a battle of weapons".
His arrest prompted days of protests in which three people were killed.
Human Rights Watch said more than 1,040 people had been arrested at Shia protests between February 2011 and August 2014. At least 240 are still believed to be in detention.
"I think the message that Saudis are saying is: 'We will arrest anybody. We don't care how high profile they are... nobody is above this. We don't have any tolerance. We don't have any flexibility,'" HRW Middle East researcher Adam Coogle told AP after Sheikh Nimr's sentencing. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-45559300 | The discovery of rock carvings believed to be tens of thousands of years old in India's western state of Maharashtra has greatly excited archaeologists who believe they hold clues to a previously unknown civilisation, BBC Marathi's Mayuresh Konnur reports.
The rock carvings - known as petroglyphs - have been discovered in their thousands atop hillocks in the Konkan region of western Maharashtra.
Mostly discovered in the Ratnagiri and Rajapur areas, a majority of the images etched on the rocky, flat hilltops remained unnoticed for thousands of years.
Most of them were hidden beneath layers of soil and mud. But a few were in the open - these were considered holy and worshipped by locals in some areas.
The sheer variety of the rock carvings have stunned experts - animals, birds, human figures and geometrical designs are all depicted.
The way the petroglyphs have been drawn, and their similarity to those found in other parts of the world, have led experts to believe that they were created in prehistoric times and are possibly among the oldest ever discovered.
"Our first deduction from examining these petroglyphs is that they were created around 10,000BC," the director of the Maharashtra state archaeology department, Tejas Garge, told the BBC.
The credit for their discovery goes to a group of explorers led by Sudhir Risbood and Manoj Marathe, who began searching for the images in earnest after observing a few in the area. Many were found in village temples and played a part in local folklore.
"We walked thousands of kilometres. People started sending photographs to us and we even enlisted schools in our efforts to find them. We made students ask their grandparents and other village elders if they knew about any other engravings. This provided us with a lot of valuable information," Mr Risbood told the BBC.
Together they found petroglyphs in and around 52 villages in the area. But only around five villages were aware that the images even existed.
Apart from actively searching for them, Mr Risbood and Mr Marathe have also played an important role in documenting the petroglyphs and lobbying authorities to get involved in studying and preserving them.
Mr Garge says the images appear to have been created by a hunter-gatherer community which was not familiar with agriculture.
"We have not found any pictures of farming activities. But the images depict hunted animals and there's detailing of animal forms. So this man knew about animals and sea creatures. That indicates he was dependent on hunting for food."
Dr Shrikant Pradhan, a researcher and art historian at Pune's Deccan College who has studied the petroglyphs closely, said that the art was clearly inspired by things observed by people at the time.
"Most of the petroglyphs show familiar animals. There are images of sharks and whales as well as amphibians like turtles," Mr Garge adds.
But this begs the question of why some of the petroglyphs depict animals like hippos and rhinoceroses which aren't found in this part of India. Did the people who created them migrate to India from Africa? Or were these animals once found in India?
The state government has set aside a fund of 240 million rupees ($3.2m; £2.5m) to further study 400 of the identified petroglyphs.
It is hoped that some of these questions will eventually be answered. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3028250.stm | Arguably he has been the most famous press secretary the UK has ever seen.
Mr Campbell was appointed as Tony Blair's official spokesman in 1994.
From then up until the announcement that he was leaving his government post, the two men were regarded as so close that his words have often been interpreted as carrying the full authority of Mr Blair.
With his decision to quit the prime minister has lost a man totally devoted to his cause.
Despite opting for a more behind the scenes role as communications chief in recent times, Mr Campbell has proved that he is capable of making the news in his own right.
Speculation over his future began around the time of his appearance, this summer, before MPs investigating whether the government exaggerated the case for invading Iraq.
The partner of Cherie Blair's adviser Fiona Millar, Mr Campbell read modern languages at Cambridge.
He made money by writing pornographic stories for the men's magazine Forum before entering journalism.
By the age of 29 he had moved a long way from his roots as the son of a Pennine vet to become the news editor of a newspaper called Sunday Today.
But the publication's launch faltered and the experience led him to a nervous breakdown.
Campbell is said to have come out of the experience less brash, more disciplined and even more driven in his career.
Around the same time he gave up alcohol - a step believed by many to give him the advantage of a clear head 24 hours a day to deal with the media.
His career in the media continued successfully and he soon became political editor of the Daily Mirror.
During this time he was also one of then Labour leader Neil Kinnock's closest advisers.
It was from that post which Mr Campbell resigned to become spokesman for Tony Blair, then leader of the opposition.
With the Labour election victory in 1997, he became the prime minister's chief press secretary, setting up a formidable Whitehall machine to put over the government's views and try to control the news agenda.
In 2000 Mr Campbell gave up daily briefings to Westminster lobby journalists to concentrate more on long-term strategy.
It was a move prompted by the fear that he, rather than his boss, was becoming the focus of media stories.
"He throws himself into the project in hand with obsessive dedication"
A press chief like no other? |
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36213588 | On Monday, the BBC gave extensive coverage to Craig Wright's claims that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin. The following day, as many in the cryptographic community tore into his claims, he promised further "extraordinary proof".
But in the last 24 hours, he has first initiated an experiment designed to show that he does possess Satoshi's cryptographic keys, then done an about-turn with a blog saying he "does not have the courage" to carry this through.
I have always stressed that it was his endorsement by Jon Matonis and Gavin Andresen from the Bitcoin Foundation that we found compelling. But now they - and I - have been involved in this failed experiment, which is bound to raise fresh doubts.
On Monday evening, I suggested to Wright's PR firm that if he could send me a fraction of a coin from an early Bitcoin block - which of course I would return - that might show he had Satoshi's keys. But Wright's team came up with a different plan on Wednesday afternoon.
They sent me a draft blog in which he outlined a scheme that would see Matonis, Andresen and the BBC all send small amounts of Bitcoin to the address used in the first ever transaction. Then he would send it back, in what would be the first outgoing transactions from the block since January 2009.
We went ahead with our payments - I sent 0.017BTC (about £5), which you can still see in the online records. Matonis and Andresen sent similar amounts.
Then we waited. And waited. Then my phone rang - with the news that the whole operation was "on hold", with no reason given.
Eighteen hours later we are still waiting for the payments to be made - and now Wright's new blog says that is not going to happen.
I have relied throughout on the expertise of Matonis and Andresen. As of this moment, neither has withdrawn their original statements of support for Wright's case.
Indeed, I understand that Jon Matonis, while concerned at the way events have unfolded, is adamant that he still believes Craig Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto based on other evidence he has seen. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-47373677 | A witness has told the Ballymurphy inquest he remembers the blood of a shooting victim running down his arms, as he carried his body.
Brian McLaughlin was a community and youth worker in the Moyard area on 9 August 1971, when Fr Hugh Mullan and Francis Quinn were shot and killed.
He did not see anyone being shot that day.
But he said he later helped to move the body of Fr Mullan to a house where he and others took the remains upstairs.
"His blood ran down my arms," Mr McLaughlin said.
"This has always stuck with me.
"I remember thinking, 'Why is this happening?'"
Mr McLaughlin, who is now aged 74, went on to describe the mood of fear in the area that day, when internment had been introduced, and when there was both rioting and gunfire.
"It was a nightmare we lived," he added.
"Nightmares, they don't fade that easily."
He also told the court he had seen one "young fella" in the Moyard area with a revolver.
He had not recognised him.
Mr McLaughlin said he observed the man for about 15 minutes, during which time he made no attempt to fire the revolver, but rather appeared to be trying to hide.
Mr McLaughlin said there was firing from what he believed to be the police, the Army and "the Protestant population" in Springmartin.
He said he thought the man with the revolver would "have been insane to use it", especially as he would have endangered others taking cover near him.
At one point as he tried to help those who were injured, Mr McLaughlin said he could hear the "bullets zinging by", and believed he had been the target at whom the gunmen had been aiming.
Like several other witnesses to the inquest, he thought the shooting had come from Springmartin flats.
Later, Sean Daly told the court he had gone to help Bobby Clarke who was shot on waste ground, and had removed his own white T-shirt to give to Fr Mullan to use as a white flag.
He recalled seeing Fr Mullan leave for help, and then go down when he was shot.
During a second burst of gunfire, Mr Daly said he was hit himself, in the toe.
He said he crawled from the area and hid in long grass, before being rescued about half an hour later.
Mr Daly told the court he was "proud of how quick I got out of that predicament".
"I was afraid, I was scared, I was waiting for the final bullet to come my direction," he added.
Mr Daly escaped the area with the help of two first aid men who helped him out of the corner of the field.
He described later having his wound examined by a doctor, and receiving about £200 compensation for the injury.
He also described a faint recollection of hearing a brief burst of gunfire from the Moyard area towards Springmartin earlier in the evening.
Ten people were shot over three days in August 1971.
Later the court heard from Michael O'Hara, a nephew of Joan Connolly, the only woman to be shot in Ballymurphy during those days.
He explained that this was the last night he ever saw his aunt as she was out searching for two of her daughters.
He remembered that while he was walking home he had seen many paratroopers patrolling the area, and that one had said to him: "Michael, stay off the streets tonight."
Mr O'Hara said he had thought it wiser not to respond to the soldier, especially as he was on his way home anyway.
He had gone into Springfield Park at one stage to help defend the area, and witnessed damage to the houses there from missiles thrown from Springmartin.
He went home when gunfire began shortly afterwards.
Mr O'Hara described how later that evening he and his family sheltered with neighbours and young people in their home in the Moyard area during a period of intense gunfire.
After things had calmed down, they went to the nearby home of a neighbour where two children had been sleeping, and found it had been hit about 50 times by high velocity rounds.
The extensive damage was filmed the next day by a television news crew. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/2063326.stm | The parents of Amanda Dowler have been sending text messages to her mobile phone since she disappeared, it has been revealed.
Bob Dowler, 50 and Sally, 42, said on Tuesday - Amanda's 14th birthday - they were continuing to hope they will receive a reply, despite the fact the phone has not been found.
Amanda - also known as Milly - would have been celebrating her birthday with a pool party or barbecue and her parents were planning to buy her a digital camera.
The teenager vanished in March while walking home from the train station in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey.
Police have warned the couple there is little chance of finding her alive.
The couple said in a statement: "We usually celebrate Milly's birthday with something like a pool party - we have a 12-feet splash pool that we put up in the garden and have a barbecue, with a dozen or so of her friends.
"She usually does something like that for her birthday. Maybe this year she'd have wanted a karaoke party.
"Milly really loves her karaoke - we'd probably have bought her karaoke tapes for her birthday. She loves all the usual teenage stuff."
Mrs Dowler said she has sent Milly text messages on her mobile phone, which has never been found.
"I find it really hard every time I buy something for Gemma - it's a horrible feeling, because I should also be getting something for Milly."
The couple said they never imagined Milly, who has a 16-year-old sister Gemma, could disappear without trace for so long, but they were "touched" by people's reactions.
"We're struggling to fill the days. We try to set ourselves a project but it's hard to remain motivated - we end up just going through the motions.
"But we have to try to hold it together for Gemma. She gets very upset when she sees us upset, and wants us to keep positive and brave.
"There are so many things we miss - especially her playing her saxophone. The lack of noise is very noticeable - the house is so very, very quiet now."
Superintendent Alan Sharp, of Surrey Police, said: "Our thoughts are with Amanda's family, particularly at this very difficult time.
"We offer them every sympathy and continue to put all our efforts into finding Amanda."
The Dowlers have also given permission for Surrey police to release a new home video of Amanda in an attempt to yield more clues about her disappearance.
Police have found no trace of Milly despite a massive search, more than 300,000 calls from members of the public and a �100,000 reward line.
A 52-year-old man from Ashford, Middlesex, was arrested in June in connection with Milly's disappearance.
"Milly's mother still sends text messages to her" |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-38729760 | The home secretary has appeared to rule out the possibility of Scotland being handed powers over immigration after the UK leaves the EU.
Amber Rudd said introducing different rules "would complicate the immigration system, harming its integrity" and cause problems for businesses.
SNP MP Tommy Sheppard accused Ms Rudd of showing arrogance and complacency.
There have been calls in recent weeks for the UK government to allow Scotland to set its own immigration targets.
And Michael Gove, a key figure in the Leave campaign, suggested ahead of last June's EU referendum that it would be "for Scotland to decide" on immigration numbers to the country after Brexit.
But speaking in the House of Commons on Monday, Ms Rudd said the government's immigration policy "works for the whole of the United Kingdom and that's the one we will continue to support".
She added: "Immigration remains a reserved matter and we will consider the needs of the UK as a whole.
"Applying different immigration rules to different parts of the UK would complicate the immigration system, harming its integrity and cause difficulties for employers who need the flexibility to deploy their staff over the UK."
Mr Sheppard, the SNP MP for Edinburgh East, condemned the stance taken by the home secretary as he said other countries operate regional immigration policies.
He said during Home Office questions: "That is a very disappointing response infused with both arrogance and complacency.
"There are many large countries such as Canada and Australia which have regional variations in their immigration and visa policies to take account of diverse and complicated local economic circumstances.
"Is it not foolhardy for this government at this very early stage to rule out the prospect of doing that in the regions and nations of the United Kingdom?"
Fellow SNP MP John Nicolson also pushed Ms Rudd to allow Holyrood to set its own targets.
But the home secretary hit back by suggesting the Scottish government would be able to attract more immigrants if it improved its health and education services.
She said: "You must share my view surely that Scotland has sufficient powers, has its own powers to do many things it could do, perhaps to improve its education system, perhaps to improve its health system.
"Immigrants will come to a place where they see an improving education system, an improving health system and perhaps the SNP should spend a little bit more time on applying itself to those important issues rather than constitutional ones." |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-47740903 | A dozen post-primary schools needed emergency funding in March just to pay their teachers.
That is according to the outgoing chief executive of the Education Authority (EA) Gavin Boyd.
Mr Boyd was the EA's first head when it was established in April 2015. He leaves the role this week to be succeeded by Sara Long.
The EA is responsible for spending most of Northern Ireland's annual £2bn education budget.
As well as funding about 1,100 schools, it is also provides services like school transport, meals, maintenance and support for children with special educational needs.
Speaking to BBC News NI before he stepped down, Mr Boyd said that education was in a "financial crisis".
"What we're seeing is ongoing teacher redundancies and subject choice is being restricted, particularly in our smaller post-primary schools," he said.
"We're seeing, at primary level, increased class sizes.
"I'm also seeing in very large schools - some voluntary grammar schools and grant-maintained integrated schools - real pressures.
"We're having to step in this year in up to a dozen schools that needed our help so they could pay salaries in the month of March."
There are 50 voluntary grammar schools and 15 grant-maintained integrated post-primary schools in Northern Ireland.
They have usually had a larger degree of autonomy in managing their own budgets than other types of schools.
But Mr Boyd said that, in some of those schools, emergency funding from the EA had been needed to ensure staff wages could be paid.
He has been one of the highest-paid public servants in Northern Ireland on a basic salary of around £150,000 a year.
However, the EA has come in for regular criticism during his four years in charge, especially from some principals over the level of funding to schools.
Mr Boyd also admitted the authority is struggling to support growing numbers of children with special educational needs.
"Despite the fact that our real terms funding is reducing in the authority, our expenditure on special educational needs has increased by about 6% per annum," he said.
"We're doing our very best in very difficult circumstances but the fact is we're not meeting the additional needs coming forward in a way that parents and school principals and teachers would like us to meet those needs."
The EA has not operated under the guidance of an education minister since the assembly collapsed in early 2017.
Mr Boyd said one was needed to take decisions to transform the education system.
"We've too many schools and it costs money to maintain the number of schools that we have," he said.
"We do need political support and political direction to carry through the rationalisation programmes that we all know need to take place and would actually be beneficial for our children and young people."
However, he had a stark warning for politicians when they eventually got back in charge.
"We need a significant increase in baseline funding for education," he said.
"If we continue to reduce real terms funding for education things will get worse." |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-20135074 | The Duke of Edinburgh has opened what is thought to be the UK's most sophisticated wave energy testing tank at Plymouth University.
The £19m Marine Building heralds a "new dawn" for renewable energy in the region, said the university.
The duke also unveiled a computer-operated ship simulator used to train future vessel captains.
He has also been awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Marine Science by the university.
The doctorate was awarded to "pay tribute to his distinguished and decorated career" in the Royal Navy.
On the ground floor of the Marine Building, engineers will be able to test devices using waves, currents and wind.
The second floor has the simulator to enable students to pilot vessels from super tankers to yachts in ports around the world.
There is also a business support centre for wave energy firms.
Prof Wendy Purcell, the university's vice-chancellor, said: "We are heralding a new dawn for the city, the region and the marine renewable sector, who will be able to use the building's research and development facilities to catalyse technological breakthroughs."
The opening of the Marine Building follows the announcement on Monday of what could be the first wave energy machine for Wave Hub, a grid-connected test site about 10 miles off the coast at Hayle in Cornwall.
Last year another wave energy testing site was announced in Falmouth Bay in Cornwall.
Falmouth Bay Testing Site (Fabtest) will enable developers to test wave energy devices prior to linking up to Wave Hub. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/5189948.stm | Hundreds of people are now known to have been killed in a tsunami which struck the town of Pangandaran on the Indonesian island of Java.
The tsunami was triggered by a magnitude 7.7 undersea earthquake which shook buildings in the capital, Jakarta, some 270km (170 miles) away.
Hotels, businesses and houses were devastated by the two-metre-high wave which hit the resort town on Monday afternoon.
The wave swept boats onto the shore and littered the streets with debris.
Rescue workers have been sent to the scene and officials fear that the death toll will rise further.
Hundreds of people have been injured, and thousands displaced by the tsunami.
Relief items such as tents and food are being sent to help the victims. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/internationals/3998817.stm | Scotland have plunged to a new low of 77th in the Fifa world rankings.
The news comes nine days after the resignation of national manager Berti Vogts following a poor start to the World Cup qualifying campaign.
Scotland's fall of nine places puts them behind the likes of Estonia, Ghana, Angola and Thailand - and level with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
England are unchanged in seventh, with the Republic of Ireland also static in 14th, Wales down six places to 63rd and Northern Ireland up three to 107th.
Brazil remain top of the rankings ahead of France and Argentina. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-11999193 | It was in an early morning phone call that Jenny Baynham learned about a brutal attack on her brother.
Clearly distraught, her elderly mother said: "Oh Jen, I have got some terrible news."
Ms Baynham had spoken to her older brother Ian, 62, the night before he went out to celebrate his new job.
She too had secured a new job and the siblings had spoken about how their first week had gone.
Her new post had brought her back to London after 10 years in Australia, closer to her mother and two brothers.
But on the morning of 25 September, 2009, her world fell apart when her mother relayed the news of the Trafalgar Square attack.
Ms Baynham said: "I was absolutely shattered. I couldn't imagine my mother would ever tell me anything like that. She was desperately upset... At that point I didn't know it was a homophobic attack."
During the trial the court heard Mr Baynham was subjected to homophobic taunts before being punched to the ground.
Joel Alexander, 19, landed the blow before Rachel Burke and Ruby Thomas, both 18, kicked him as he lay unconscious.
Thomas and Alexander were found guilty of manslaughter. Burke was convicted of affray.
Mr Baynham died 18 days after the attack, which was fuelled by "drunkenness and loutish behaviour", Brian Altman QC, prosecuting, told the jury.
Mr Baynham's friend of 10 years, George Richardson, said: "I heard about the attack about 15 minutes after it happened.
"Philip [Brown], who was with him on the night, rang me from Trafalgar Square.
"Philip had told me on the phone how it started so I knew it [was a homophobic attack] straight away."
He then told Mr Baynham's sister about the nature of the attack.
She said she felt "bewildered" at learning the reason and sitting through the trial had been a "shocking" ordeal.
"I don't think anything has really changed and I think there's still a huge prejudice.
"I think as individuals everybody has feelings about different sections of society but it is tolerance that is so important.
"I don't feel angry but I feel a sense that something positive has to come out of it."
A spokesman for gay rights group Stonewall said although reporting of homophobic crime had increased it remained a "real concern" and the "tragic death" of Mr Baynham was just one example.
He said: "Lesbian and gay people in London are over one-and-a-half times more likely to alter their behaviour to avoid homophobic hate crime than gay people in the South West and Wales."
A YouGov study for Stonewall showed that one in five homosexuals had experienced a hate crime or incident in the past three years.
He added: "People don't develop homophobic attitudes overnight and suddenly start attacking gay people.
"Stonewall's research has shown that homophobic bullying and violence is endemic in Britain's schools.
"Nine in 10 secondary school teachers and more than two in five primary school teachers say that children - regardless of their sexual orientation - currently experience anti-gay bullying in their schools."
Figures from the Metropolitan Police show that between April 2009 and March 2010 homophobic crime rose by 22.2% from the previous 12 months - from 1,093 to 1,336 incidents.
The highest number of incidents were reported in the City of Westminster - up from 86 to 124 - where Ian Baynham was beaten to death.
Up to March 2010, Camden saw 100 (up from 70), Lambeth 98 (67), Southwark - 83 (58), Islington 75 (down from 86) and Bromley recorded 74 incidents (48).
In 2006-07 1,147 crimes were reported, in 2007-08 there were 961 crimes reported and this rose to 1,093 in 2008-09.
A Met spokesman said hate crime was still under reported but there had been a growing willingness of victims to report.
He said: "We recognise that the under-reporting of hate crime represents missed opportunities - to keep victims safe or otherwise support them, to identify and tackle repeat perpetrators and to identify and police hate crime hotspots, and thus we are always seeking ways to increase reporting."
Dean Ingledew, operational director for community safety in Westminster, said: "We are incredibly proud of Soho's vibrant gay community.
"We take this type of crime extremely seriously.
"We are working with the gay community to encourage the reporting of such attacks and we are closely monitoring the crime stats so any emerging issues can be quickly tackled.
"But when you take into account the 200 million annual visitors to the West End the chances of becoming a victim of any kind of crime in Westminster is thankfully extremely remote." |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-30996102 | Chinese authorities are investigating allegations that senior security officials ate a critically endangered giant salamander at a lavish banquet.
A local newspaper said journalists it sent to the restaurant to report on the meal were later beaten up as they photographed guests leaving.
The meal reportedly took place in the southern city of Shenzhen last week.
At least 14 policemen have been suspended over the incident, local media report.
Officials have been discouraged from holding expensive feasts under President Xi Jinping's austerity and anti-corruption drive.
China last year also approved stricter penalties for people caught eating rare wild animals, with offenders jailed for up to 10 years.
The Southern Metropolis Daily published an extensive report (in Chinese) on Monday documenting the incident.
The paper said that last Wednesday it received a tip-off that about 28 people, including senior public security officials, were using public funds to pay for a banquet that night, where they would be eating the endangered salamander.
It sent two reporters and a photojournalist, who managed to sneak into the restaurant and from outside the private dining room reportedly overheard the party host boasting that he wanted to give guests "a special treat".
A dinner guest later confirmed with the paper that they were served a giant salamander which the host had brought for the party.
Chinese giant salamanders, which can grow to nearly 180cm (5.9 ft), are critically endangered and a protected wildlife species in China, but are also considered a delicacy.
The meal reportedly cost 6,352 yuan (£673; $1,015).
Guests were also seen being given bags of fish as they left. An official was heard saying the fish were taken from a reservoir where fishing is prohibited.
The situation turned violent when the officials realised that the photojournalist was taking their pictures as they left the restaurant and confronted him, said the paper. The two reporters were also surrounded by the officials and security guards.
The journalists were allegedly beaten up and throttled, and their equipment and phones were stolen.
State news agency Xinhua later reported that 14 police officers were suspended from duty, though said it was not clear whether they had been at the meal or arrived because of the clashes. A local police chief was also under investigation, said Xinhua.
Local authorities have also convened a team to investigate the incident, though one public security chief has claimed that the party had been paid for by a retired official. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-middle-east-34347197/yemen-conflict-victims-of-six-months-fighting | The victims of Yemen's conflict Jump to media player Counting the cost of six months of conflict in Yemen.
Who's in charge in Yemen? In 90 secs Jump to media player The political situation in Yemen is one of the most confusing in the Middle East. Here's a 90-second guide to the key players in the country's current unrest.
Who are Yemen's Houthis? Jump to media player Escalating tensions between Yemen's government and the armed Shia Houthi movement are threatening to plunge one of the poorest countries in the Middle East into a wide-scale armed conflict.
The poorest country in the Middle East, Yemen, has been pounded by a Saudi-led coalition for six months.
The Saudis are leading 10 allied countries and have vowed to fight until the Houthi rebels and their allies have been defeated.
Yemen's President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia in March following gains by the rebels.
Although he returned to the southern city of Aden this week, the war continues to inflict a heavy cost. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-43821674 | Image caption Pop star and Unicef ambassador Toya Delazy says the poaching of rhinos feels as if "we're losing our humanity"
Entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson and conservationist Jane Goodall have joined a list of famous names who have signed an open letter to South Africa's government calling for an end to rhino poaching.
More than 1,000 rhinos were killed across the country in 2017 for the fifth year running.
The international monitoring group Traffic says nearly 5,500 rhinos have been killed over a five-year period.
Only 20,000 or so rhinos remain in South Africa - the vast majority of the 25,000 animals left across the whole continent, says Traffic.
Could farming rhinos save them from extinction?
Most of the 222 rhinos killed for their horn in South Africa's eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal were at the state-run Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park.
Conservation group Saving the Wild says a "web of systematic corruption" within the justice system is to blame. It says this has allowed poaching to continue in a province which saw poaching increase by a third.
The campaign body says "no action has been taken against this grossly corrupt alleged syndicate of justice officials".
"We are concerned that members of this syndicate are under political protection."
"Even when arrests are made, few poachers ever go to jail. The law is not acting as a deterrent to this onslaught."
South Africa's oldest game reserve, Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, became famous for its white rhino conservation work in the 1950s and 60s when it brought the sub-species back from the edge of extinction.
Now it has become one of the parks worst affected by rhino poaching.
"More than 8,200 rhinos have been killed by poachers in Africa over the past decade," says Julian Rademeyer of Traffic, a group which monitors the illegal trade in wildlife.
"Corruption and rhino poaching are inextricably linked. In far too many cases, rangers, police, government officials - even magistrates - are easily corrupted by powerful criminal forces with ready supplies of hard cash.
He adds: "In South Africa, several police crime intelligence officers - who are meant to play a key role in combating organised crime - have been implicated in rhino horn cases."
The founder of Saving the Wild, Jamie Joseph, says there has been evidence of corruption by some magistrates and prosecutors dealing with poaching cases but action has not been taken.
"I have worked with the Magistrates Commission and police on this investigation for more than two years, and I have seen how some justice officials put in charge of protecting our human rights and natural heritage are the ones causing the most damage," she said.
The open letter calling for "the South African government to take urgent action against the alleged syndicate of magistrates and prosecutors" was also signed by Zulu princess Latoya Buthelezi, a Unicef ambassador who is also a pop star known as Toya Delazy.
"The rhino is sacred to Zulus. The Zulu word for rhino - ubhejane - is a praise name given to the king," she said.
"When we hear that rhinos are being slaughtered it's just so sad. It feels like we're losing our humanity."
At the start of 2018 South Africa's environmental affairs minister Edna Molewa described rhino poaching as "a national priority crime," as she announced a 2% drop in the number of rhinos killed in 2017.
She welcomed falling poaching rates in the Kruger National Park, but acknowledged there had been an increase in other areas and said the government was committed to rooting out corruption.
"There have been arrests made for poaching-related offences from amongst our own personnel. Regrettably, during 2017, 21 officials were arrested in this regard."
She added that South Africa's park management authority had "instituted a programme of integrity testing throughout the organisation, to support our ongoing anti-poaching efforts".
Other signatories to the letter include wildlife photographer Thomas Mangelsen, and South African musician Vusi Mahlasela, who warned of the danger to poor communities.
"Countless families in South Africa's rural communities rely on wildlife tourism for their livelihoods. If we have a voice, we should use it for those who do not."
Video Could farming rhinos save them from extinction? |
https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-47717937 | Nasa has cancelled plans for its first all-female spacewalk this Friday, citing a lack of available spacesuits in the right size.
There are not enough suits configured on the International Space Station for both Christina Koch and Anne McClain to go out at the same time, so male astronaut Nick Hague will replace Lt Col McClain.
Last week, Lt Col McClain went on a spacewalk with Col Hague and learned that a medium-sized spacesuit fitted her best.
However, Nasa said in a statement: "Because only one medium-size torso can be made ready by Friday 29 March, Koch will wear it."
For many women working in science, a choice between using equipment designed for men or missing out altogether is all too familiar.
Jessica Mounts is a biologist. For more than a decade she worked in freshwater fisheries science for the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism. She is now the executive director of the Kansas Alliance for Wetlands and Streams.
She noted Nasa's missed milestone with disappointment, but she was not necessarily surprised.
"Representation matters everywhere," she told the BBC.
"The first female spacewalk was both historically significant and inspiring to young girls, like my 10-year-old niece, who dreams of eventually going to space.
"If we can't provide women the equipment they need to do their jobs as astronauts, scientists or first responders, how can we expect to make progress towards equal representation?
"How can women represent a full range of career choices to the next generation of young girls, when we're held back by something as simple as equipment and clothing that fits?"
Jessica's work means she is frequently in rivers or lakes, in all weathers, to monitor and evaluate fish populations. She has often been, she says, "the only woman on the boat".
"Most of the equipment I've used has been designed for men. The problems caused aren't simply an annoyance - they all go back to personal safety.
"Clothing that is too loose gets caught in moving equipment. Boots that are too big mean tripping and falling.
"The alternatives that are 'designed for women' are frequently more expensive, have smaller pockets, are still ill-fitting and most likely have just been copies of the male version with a little pink added to the trim."
Jessica shared her frustrations on Twitter and she was far from alone in her experiences.
There was the biostatistician with a PhD in quantitative genetics, who could not find safety goggles that fit properly when working in the lab with chemicals.
Jessica was also tweeted by a biologist who could not get the steel toe-capped boots she needed for field work outside, and a neuroscientist who said she "passed out from overheating" because the only surgical gowns available for teaching were in "six-foot tall man" sizes and had to be wrapped around her three times.
And it is not only the scientific world where women must frequently make do. Caroline Criado Perez is a feminist, journalist and author of Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men.
"We don't collect data on women and therefore we don't design things for women," she told the BBC's Jeremy Vine show on Wednesday.
"We think of male bodies and typical male life patterns as the default for humans overall, and so women are disadvantaged as a result.
"Spacesuits are the tip of the iceberg. When you look at personal protective equipment - stab vests, safety goggles, safety boots, all those kinds of clothes and tools that people are supposed to use to protect themselves at work, a lot of the time they don't fit women."
Jessica says things are improving, but the pace of change is slow.
"As more women enter the field, things have improved marginally.
"Waders made in women's sizes are now available and there are some designs of personal flotation devices made to accommodate breasts. That said, we have a long way to go.
"Historically, science and similar fields have been dominated by men and the systemic culture of our society continues to support that narrative.
"When only men are allowed to work, the only equipment available is made for them. When women want to work, the equipment isn't there and is a tangible symbol of the greater issue of systemic sexism in a society designed, in general, by and for men." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6452493.stm | Spending limits on political campaigns and caps on individual donations remain "obstacles" to a deal on party funding, Sir Hayden Phillips has said.
His year-long review recommends both be capped, but despite "broad agreement" the parties can not agree on details.
However Sir Hayden believes a deal is "within reach" and is now to chair face-to-face talks between the parties.
The review, which also backs a £25m a year rise in state funding, is designed to "restore public confidence".
Sir Hayden's inquiry was commissioned by Tony Blair in March 2006 after it emerged that to fund their 2005 General Election campaign, Labour was secretly loaned nearly £14m and the Conservatives £16m. The Liberal Democrats said they borrowed £850,000 from three backers.
His recommendations also include the largest parties cutting spending between elections by £20m each.
The prime minister welcomed Sir Hayden's report, saying "it shows very clearly that there is now the basis for a new agreement on the funding and expenditure of political parties".
He said he hoped consensus could be reached in talks between the three main parties before the summer recess in mid-July.
Mr Blair said a deal would pave the way for legislation in the next parliamentary session.
Labour chairman Hazel Blears said the practical implications of capping donations would need to be studied.
"What he says, is that different political parties have got different historical structures, he wants to be able to recognise that ...he recognised that the three and a half million trade union members, ordinary working people who pay just a few pounds a year in terms of their political fund, are in a different position than massively big donors.
"So, we will have to think carefully about this and its affect on the party."
Conservative Party chairman Francis Maude said the party accepted the report's main recommendations.
"We believe that all political parties should work together to achieve this," he said.
Liberal Democrat parliamentary spokesman David Heath said the key objective must be to restore public confidence in the political system.
"There are undoubtedly difficult areas for all of us to consider," he said.
In his 25-page report, Sir Hayden said a £50,000 limit on donations from individuals or organisations - as demanded by the Conservatives - would be "reasonable and attainable".
But he said this would create considerable difficulties for Labour if this meant it could no longer get considerable funding from trade unions.
One option would be to treat union donations as being made up of many individual gifts from members, he says.
This would only be acceptable if union members signed forms confirming they want their contribution to the union's political fund to support a particular party.
If there were to be an agreement, a cap on donations would lead to a fall in income so Sir Hayden recommends an increase in state funding.
He said state funding should be linked to backing among the public - proposing that eligible parties receive 50p each year for every vote cast for them in the most recent General Election and 25p for every vote in the most recent ballots for the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and European Parliament.
An alternative would be to use an internet-based subscription system where people's donations of £5 could be matched by state funding.
But Sir Hayden acknowledged the difficulties which remain saying: "Achieving this will require tough decisions on all sides, particularly about donation limits and spending limits."
Other recommendations include new measures to prevent the breach of regulations on donations, strengthened controls on expenditure by third parties, public access to better, clearer information about the sources of party income and new powers for the Electoral Commission watchdog to oversee the new system.
The chairman of the Electoral Commission, Sam Younger, said he agreed with Sir Hayden's analysis that a new approach to funding was necessary.
"We are clear about the need for the Electoral Commission, as the regulator, to be as effective as possible.
"We are already reinforcing this, and will be ready to implement whatever changes are agreed following the discussion which we, like Sir Hayden, hope will take place quickly following today's report." |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-37358719 | Media captionRayouf Alhumedhi wants an emoji to represent Muslim women who wear headscarves.
A Saudi teenager living in Germany has proposed designing a headscarf emoji.
Rayouf Alhumedhi, 15, has sent a proposal to The Unicode Consortium, a non-profit corporation that reviews and develops new emojis.
The idea gained the backing of the co-founder of online discussion forum Reddit, Alexis Ohanian. If approved, her emoji will be available in 2017.
The proposal comes as countries across Europe wrestle with the issue of the Muslim veil - in all its forms.
Rayouf Alhumedhi told the BBC it was during a group chat with her friends on social media that she had realised there was no emoji to represent her, a headscarf-wearing woman.
After reading an article on emoji design, she wrote an email about her idea to Unicode.
Intrigued, a member of a Unicode subcommittee replied, offering to help her draft a formal proposal.
"In this day and age, representation is extremely important," she said of her reasons behind the project.
"People want to be acknowledged... and recognised, especially in the tech world. This is massive. Emojis are everywhere.
"There are so many Muslim women in this world who wear the headscarf. It might seem trivial... but it's different when you see yourself on the keyboard around the world. Once you experience that, it's really great."
To boost support for the initiative, Mr Ohanian hosted a Reddit live online discussion on Tuesday where Reddit users could ask Rayouf Alhumedhi about the new idea.
Some wanted to see whether they could get involved while others questioned the need for the hijab, saying it was a tool to oppress women.
The drafting committee hopes to present a final version of the proposal to Unicode in November. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/6291908.stm | MPs have said the expansion of England's education inspectorate Ofsted may have made it "unfit for purpose".
Ofsted's remit increased from April to include councils, children's homes, adult learning and fostering agencies.
In a report, MPs on the education and skills committee said they were "concerned at the increasing complexity of this large bureaucracy".
Ofsted says it is confident it can continue to make a difference.
Committee chairman Barry Sheerman said: "The new Ofsted has been operating only since April 2007.
"We will be interested to see what will be achieved in the first 12 months and what value has been added by the changes.
"However, we cannot disguise our concern as to the fitness for purpose of the organisation at the present moment."
Ofsted became the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills in April.
It took on the new responsibilities on top of the existing ones of inspecting child-care providers, maintained schools, some independent schools (those not in associations), further education colleges and services for children and young people.
The MPs said they welcomed the potential for the new Ofsted to take a more comprehensive and strategic view of the issues affecting children, young people and adult learners.
"But we are concerned about the complex set of objectives and sectors that Ofsted now spans and its capacity to fulfil its core mission", the committee added.
A spokesperson for Ofsted said: "The new Ofsted has a clear responsibility to safeguard the interests of all children, learners and employers who use the services we inspect.
"We are confident that, during our first year of operation, we will continue to realise the benefits of being a large organisation, without losing the distinctive expertise and understanding that enables us to make a difference in diverse settings, from nurseries to academies and from prisons to employers' premises."
The MPs also highlighted areas of concern in the schools inspection system.
On the new "lighter-touch" inspections, which last two days or so, they said checks should be made to ensure the system was still rigorous, with the ability to identify coasting schools or those which begin to drift.
They also called for checks on what are known as "self-evaluations" submitted by schools - where they describe their own strengths and weaknesses - to make sure they are accurate.
The MPs reported that some of the new sectors being inspected by Ofsted had been used to an inspection service which also worked on improvement.
The report concluded that Ofsted should clearly communicate to all service users what it does and does not do.
Mr Sheerman said: "It still appears that Ofsted has no capacity to give advice when a cluster of local schools suffer from systemic underperformance.
"This continues to be a weakness in the inspection system."
The MPs highlighted unhappiness among schools about interpretations of the grading system which classes schools as either outstanding, good, satisfactory or inadequate.
Two successive chief inspectors of schools in England had said that "satisfactory" was not good enough.
The committee said Ofsted's gradings should be clear and understood by all and that it should clarify that schools judged to be "satisfactory" were not failing.
The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) said Ofsted was "ripe for overhaul".
The ATL's Mary Bousted, said: "ATL shares the select committee's concern that light touch Ofsted inspections are not fit for purpose in some cases.
"Ofsted is over-reliant on number crunching, using test data which are fundamentally unsound.
"ATL wants regular monitoring and inspection of schools to be locally based, with Ofsted concerning itself with the bigger picture."
Schools: to fail or not to fail? |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6469413.stm | A massive mud flow that has displaced some 15,000 people in Indonesia's Java island halted briefly for the first time in 10 months, officials say.
The mud stopped flowing for around 30 minutes on Monday morning, members of the team trying to plug the flow said.
They have been dropping hundreds of concrete balls into the mouth of the hole to stem the eruption.
Some scientists say the mud flow was likely triggered by gas drilling, but the gas company blames an earthquake.
The flow has submerged whole villages, destroying thousands of homes and businesses, since it erupted at the end of last May near the city of Surabaya in East Java.
The team's Rudi Novrianto said the mud stopped for half an hour shortly before noon (0500GMT) on Monday.
"None of our team members knows for sure what happened and we are still trying to determine how it happened," he said.
Some team members said the temporary halt to the mud flow was a sign that their efforts were working, but warned it could still be another few months before it stops for good.
"There's a possibility that a new equilibrium between the concrete balls and the mud pressure is almost established and the mud has absorbed the energy of the balls," team member Bagus Endar told Reuters news agency.
"It is a positive indication. I'm surprised by this finding."
The team has been dropping 1.5m-long metal chains, each with four concrete balls attached, into the hole since last month. They aim to drop 1,500 balls, each weighing up to 250kgs (500lbs).
While some experts have doubted that the plan - believed to have never been tried before - would work, supporters hope it will reduce the amount of mud flowing from the site by up to 70%. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7196365.stm | Confusion about phone tariffs means mobile customers could be wasting £8bn a year, an online price comparison service has warned.
Moneysupermarket said users often do not know how many minutes or texts are included in their monthly package, or how many they actually use.
This leaves them prone to incurring extra charges, which could add up to £130 each per year.
Moneysupermarket said that many users did not know the terms of their deals.
According to the research, the typical mobile phone package gives customers 166 voice minutes and 133 text messages.
However, Moneysupermarket found that the average customer uses an extra 23 minutes and sends 23 texts over and above their monthly allowance.
Industry statistics suggest there are more than 65 million active mobiles in the UK, so collectively these extra charges could cost users billions.
One of the biggest problems is a lack of awareness of contract details, and about how people use their phones in practice, Moneysupermarket said.
One in seven customers questioned did not know how many free minutes they have, while one in six was unsure how many texts were included. A similar proportion could not say what they paid for their monthly line rental.
As a result, a fifth of users admitted receiving bills for more than they expected.
"People should check their monthly bill regularly," said Rob Barnes, Moneysupermarket's head of mobiles.
"The reason mobile phone operators can offer such good contract deals is by charging customers for additional services," he added.
He urged consumers to read through their phone contract and make sure they understand the cost of any extra calls or text messages.
"If they're using up all their allowance it's worth considering a move to a different tariff with more inclusive minutes and texts - it could save a lot of money in the long run," he added. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19842441 | The ruling on Friday in the High Court is a key moment in what has been a long legal battle against the UK government.
The three Kenyans - two of whom are in their mid-80s - claim to have been tortured by British colonial authorities during the Mau Mau uprising in the 1950s.
After court proceedings lasting less than five minutes, the judge Mr Justice Richard McCombe ruled that despite the years that have passed a fair trial was possible.
Paul Nzili, Wambugu Wa Nyingi and Jane Muthoni Mara can now pursue their case. They are seeking an apology and recompense for the abuse they suffered while in detention during the conflict.
Their lawyers have always said the Kenyans want to be able to live out their final years with a degree of dignity, and are determined to obtain justice.
The story began exactly 60 years ago when the Mau Mau, or the Kenya Land and Freedom Army as they called themselves, claimed their first European victim.
A woman was stabbed to death near her home in Thika.
On 20 October 1952, Kenya's Governor Sir Evelyn Baring declared a state of emergency amid the growth of the Mau Mau movement.
So began one of the darker periods of British colonial history.
The Mau Mau waged a violent campaign against white settlers in Kenya.
A frequent question is why the claims of torture have taken so long to emerge.
This can be partly explained by the fact that the Mau Mau movement remained banned in Kenya until 2003, 40 years after independence.
Under Kenya's founding father, Jomo Kenyatta, and later during the administration of President Daniel arap Moi, the Kenyan government did little to help Mau Mau victims.
Kenyatta was a strong nationalist, but he was not a member of the Mau Mau and tried hard to bury the past when he became president.
The Mau Mau was therefore something of a taboo subject in Kenya until President Mwai Kibaki was elected head of state and allowed the veterans to register as a legal society.
The Kenya Human Rights Commission says the current administration's support for the three claimants has been largely verbal, but appreciated nonetheless.
In July, Prime Minister Raila Odinga told a Kenyan radio station "the claimants had a genuine case in seeking compensation and a statement of regret for the treatment they suffered".
Another reason why the case only came to court after so many years is that some of the history of the Kenyan Emergency was revealed by academic research conducted as recently as 2005.
Even now, the Hanslope Archive of some 8,800 secret files, sent back to the UK at the time of independence, has yet to be made public, although the documents were referred to at the High Court in London.
Leigh Day and Co, the lawyers who have brought the case against the British government, claim there are also files relating to 36 other colonies that have been discovered.
David Anderson, professor of African studies at Oxford University, says there are two distinct features about the Kenyan torture case.
First, there are victims still alive, and second, none was ever convicted of any crime or charged.
But Prof Anderson warns that there are other episodes of British colonial history that may give the Foreign and Commonwealth Office cause for concern in the wake of this Kenyan legal saga.
They are Cyprus, Malaya and Aden, although he says that what happened there, was "not on the same scale or intensity as Kenya".
The British government conceded in court in July that torture had taken place in Kenya in the 1950s.
The Foreign Office says it is disappointed with the latest judgement and will appeal.
However, a Foreign Office statement on Friday said: "We do not dispute that each of the claimants in this case suffered torture and other ill-treatment at the hands of the colonial administration."
A full trial could still be a year away. lt will need to rely heavily on documentary evidence rather than witness statements because of the years that have elapsed.
In the meantime, lawyers for the Kenyans remain hopeful that the British government might agree to an out-of-court settlement.
This would involve a welfare scheme to assist the elderly Kenyan victims with their health needs. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8021012.stm | A disc that can store 500 gigabytes (GB) of data, equivalent to 100 DVDs, has been unveiled by General Electric.
The micro-holographic disc, which is the same size as existing DVD discs, is aimed at the archive industry.
But the company believes it can eventually be used in the consumer market place and home players.
Blu-ray discs, which are used to store high definition movies and games, can currently hold between 25GB and 50GB.
A single GE disc could be used to package up a library of high definition movies but is there pent-up consumer demand for such an offering?
The challenge for this area of technology has been to increase the reflectivity of the holograms that are stored on the discs so that players can be used to both read and write to the discs.
Brian Lawrence, who leads GE's Holographic Storage said on the GE Research blog: "Very recently, the team at GE has made dramatic improvements in the materials enabling significant increases in the amount of light that can be reflected by the holograms."
The higher reflectivity that can be achieved, the more capacity for the disc. While the technology is still in the laboratory stage, GE believes it will take off because players can be built which are backwards compatible with existing DVD and Blu-ray technologies.
In a statement the firm said: "The hardware and formats are so similar to current optical storage technology that the micro-holographic players will enable consumers to play back their CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs."
''GE's breakthrough is a huge step toward bringing our next generation holographic storage technology to the everyday consumer,'' said Mr Lawrence in a statement.
Micro-holographic technology has been one of the leading areas of research for storage experts for decades. Discs are seen as a reliable and effective form of storage and are both consumer and retail friendly.
However, General Electric will need to work with hardware manufacturers if it is to bring the technology to the consumer market.
The relatively modest adoption of Blu-ray discs sales globally might be an issue with some companies who believe digital distribution and cloud computing is the long-term answer to content delivery and storage.
"This is truly a breakthrough in the development of the materials that are so critical to ultimately bringing holographic storage to the everyday consumer," said Mr Lawrence. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34519331 | Hillary Clinton has attacked her main rival Bernie Sanders over US gun laws at the Democratic presidential debate.
When asked if the Vermont senator was strong on gun control, she said, "No, not at all," before vowing to go after the makers of guns used in shootings.
Mr Sanders also attacked Mrs Clinton, saying her support for a no-fly zone in Syria would create "serious problems".
His rallies have drawn big crowds and he has challenged Mrs Clinton's frontrunner status in some key states.
Mrs Clinton and Mr Sanders dominated the debate. The three other candidates on stage in Las Vegas - former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, former Virginia Senator Jim Webb and former Rhode Island Senator Lincoln Chafee - struggled to make headway.
The two main candidates were sharply divided over gun laws, in the wake of a mass shooting at a college campus in Oregon.
When Mrs Clinton said her rival was not tough enough, she was referring to him voting in 2005 for a measure to give gun manufacturers immunity from lawsuits by shooting victims.
Media captionBernie Sanders: "The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your... emails"
The two also argued over the merits of capitalism.
Mr Sanders called for a "political revolution", arguing that "Congress does not regulate Wall Street. Wall Street regulates Congress".
But when he suggested that the US should look to Nordic countries because of "what they have accomplished for their working people", Mrs Clinton responded: "We are not Denmark. I love Denmark. We are the United States of America.
"I'm a progressive, but I'm a progressive who likes to get things done," she said.
Vice-President Joe Biden is still considering a run for the White House and did not make a last-minute entry on to the stage, as his supporters hoped.
Mrs Clinton has seen her support wane amid questions about her use of a private email account when she served as US secretary of state, a move she now calls a mistake.
However, she was unfazed during the debate when Mr Chafee questioned her credibility, refusing to respond when invited.
There were five candidates on stage, but it was the Hillary and Bernie show. And if he emerged a star, she was the definite winner.
This was a key moment for Mrs Clinton, an opportunity to silence critics of her campaign, reassure Democrats worried about her viability, a time to show her passion and connect with voters on a national stage.
She started off with a somewhat stilted, fact-filled introduction, which was a reminder she is usually better at the prose of governing than the poetry of running. But she warmed up steadily during the debate and delivered a series of good repartees.
And her overall performance appeared even stronger because of the odd assortment of rivals she faced: less experienced candidates who also understood that gratuitous shots against a member of the Democratic family would do little to advance their own campaign and nothing to serve their common cause of keeping the White House in the hands of a Democrat.
Who are the men challenging Mrs Clinton?
The candidates tried to distinguish their debate from those of the Republicans, where candidates took a tougher stance on immigration and spent more time discussing social issues such as abortion and gay marriage.
Mr Chafee noted twice that he had never had a political scandal.
Mr O'Malley defended his record as mayor in Baltimore, where there were riots this year.
Vietnam veteran Mr Webb said his military service gave him leadership skills.
Mr O'Malley used his 90-second closing speech to say the Republican debates were lessons in intolerance.
Republican candidates took to Twitter to offer reactions. Jeb Bush said Mrs Clinton had "just told you she has no interest in changing direction. I sure will." Frontrunner Donald Trump said he found the debate "a little sad!", and that candidates appeared "very scripted".
Fifteen Republicans are vying to be the party's White House nominee in 2016.
Iowa will be the first state to hold primaries in February. By next summer, each party will have a presidential nominee.
Votes will finally be cast in November 2016. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-45295392 | To procrastinate or not: the answer may be down to differences in how our brains are wired, a study suggests.
It identified two areas of the brain that determine whether we are more likely to get on with a task or continually put it off.
Researchers used a survey and scans of 264 people's brains to measure how proactive they were.
Experts say the study, in Psychological Science, underlines procrastination is more about managing emotions than time.
It found that the amygdala - an almond-shaped structure in the temporal (side) lobe which processes our emotions and controls our motivation - was larger in procrastinators.
In these individuals, there were also poorer connections between the amygdala and a part of the brain called the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (DACC).
The DACC uses information from the amygdala and decides what action the body will take. It helps keep the person on track by blocking out competing emotions and distractions.
"Individuals with a larger amygdala may be more anxious about the negative consequences of an action - they tend to hesitate and put off things," says Erhan Genç, one of the study authors, based at Ruhr University Bochum.
The researchers suggest that procrastinators are less able to filter out interfering emotions and distractions because the connections between the amygdala and the DACC in their brains are not as good as in proactive individuals.
Prof Tim Pychyl, from Carleton University, Ottawa, who has been studying procrastination for the past few decades, believes it is a problem with managing emotions rather than time.
"This study provides physiological evidence of the problem procrastinators have with emotional control," he says.
"It shows how the emotional centres of the brain can overwhelm a person's ability for self-regulation."
Dr Pychyl is optimistic about the potential for change. He said: "Research has already shown that mindfulness meditation is related to amygdala shrinkage, expansion of the pre-frontal cortex and a weakening of the connection between these two areas".
He said this showed that changing the brain was possible.
Dr Caroline Schluter, the lead author of the study, said: "The brain is very responsive and can change throughout the lifespan."
Productivity expert Moyra Scott thinks we need to take personality into account when motivating ourselves.
"We need to recognise when we are procrastinating and have 'tricks' we can employ to get us doing something," she said.
If you don't have an external deadline, use a timer to focus for set periods - for example, 25 minutes at a time with 5 minute breaks and a longer break every 90 minutes.
Write a list of tasks but break it down into smaller, more specific ones. This makes them easier to action and complete.
Try to minimise interruptions like email notifications. Putting your phone on airplane mode or going somewhere to work where you won't be disturbed will also help.
Being "busy" is easier than doing the thing we are avoiding. Instead of doing the task at hand, we do other stuff instead and kid ourselves that we don't have the time. You do have the time. You just need to make it.
Viewpoint: Why do we procrastinate so much? |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25922231 | French unemployment has hit a record high with more than 3.3 million people now registered as out of work.
In December, 10,200 more people were listed as jobless, breaking President Francois Hollande's promise joblessness would fall by the year end.
The French unemployment rate is now 11.1%. It went up by 5.7% in 2013, and rose 0.3% in December.
In Ankara, Turkey, Mr Hollande said ahead of the release: "Stabilisation, which we have achieved, is not enough."
Mr Hollande, whose popularity is languishing at record lows, had made reversing the trend in unemployment one of his top priorities last year.
The French Labour Ministry said the rate of unemployment appeared to be slowing, with 177,800 people joining the jobless register in 2013 compared to 283,800 in 2012.
But economist Eric Heyer at think tank OFCE said most of the improvement was due to state-sponsored jobs rather than a real recovery in the broader economy.
He said Hollande's tax break plans would not come to fruition until at least 2016, ruling out any quick turnaround in the labour market.
Mr Heyer added: "For the private sector to create jobs, you need growth stronger than 1%, whereas the government sees growth of 0.9% this year."
Earlier this month the French president had announced tax breaks for companies that committed to hiring more workers, in an effort to ease unemployment.
He also promised that by 2017 he would phase out 30bn euros ($41bn, £25bn) of charges paid by companies for family benefits - if they accept targets for hiring and domestic investment. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/internationals/7327637.stm | Liverpool did very well in their 1-1 draw with Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday.
Manager Rafael Benitez was conducting the game from the sidelines, I think he sat down once, and the tactics came right for him once again on a European night.
Liverpool are very disciplined and well organised in terms of knowing how to defend.
But I think Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger will be a little disappointed.
I expected more from Arsenal. I thought that they would win this tie 2-1, with Liverpool scoring an important away goal.
The Gunners took the game as much as they could to a very good team defensive team but failed to create many chances.
In the second half did they look as if they were about to get in behind the Liverpool defence.
Arsenal took the lead in the first half and it does not matter what level you play at - when you have just scored you have to really have your concentration at 100% for the next few minutes.
For Liverpool to then equalise three minutes later was a great boost for them.
Their goal was very well made by Steven Gerrard, who went past two or three players before cutting the ball back for Dirk Kuyt to score.
People talk about Arsenal's inexperience but, as far as I am concerned, you have to be able to cope.
Yes, this is a learning curve for them but quite a few of their players are quite experienced already.
The return leg at Anfield will be a fantastic night, with a great atmosphere. It will definitely lift the Liverpool players and it will be important how the Arsenal team reacts.
Arsenal will score at Anfield but I think like usual we will concede...penalties here we come!
I think that a lot depends on the first goal.
The tie is now in Liverpool's favour but do not rule out the possibility of Arsenal scoring at Anfield.
As for Chelsea, who lost 2-1 at Fenerbahce - I always thought that would be a difficult game.
Unless you have been to Fenerbahce or other such places in Turkey, you do not really know what the atmosphere is like. It is not easy to handle.
Having said that, I still expect Chelsea to go through. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-40138245 | A cyclist who died after her wheel became stuck in tram tracks in Edinburgh has been named by police.
Zhi Min Soh, 23, was hit by a minibus on Princes Street, at its junction with Lothian Road, at about 08:30 on Wednesday.
Ms Soh, from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, was a medical student at Edinburgh University.
She was described as "talented and thoughtful". The university said it had lost "a bright star of the future".
Lawyers have said warnings about tram track safety risks in Edinburgh for cyclists have been ignored by the council.
Edinburgh city council said it made "every effort" to raise awareness of the tracks.
In a statement issued through Police Scotland, Dr David Kluth from Edinburgh University's medical school, said: "Zhi Min was a talented, thoughtful student, who was well-respected by her peers and always keen to help.
"She will be deeply missed by the medical school community.
"Our sympathies at this time are with her family and friends. We have all lost a bright star of the future."
Police have appealed for any witnesses to the incident to come forward.
Sgt Fraser Wood of Edinburgh's road policing unit said: "This is a tragic incident and our thoughts are with Zhi Min's family and friends as they come to terms with their loss.
"I would like to thank those who stopped in Princes Street to assist Zhi Min on Wednesday morning.
"A significant number of witnesses have come forward and we are continuing to speak to them as part of our ongoing inquiries. We will be in touch with all witnesses in due course."
He added: "I would again ask anyone who may be able to help our inquiries to come forward and contact us as soon as possible." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/berkshire/2982148.stm | A mother has been cleared of murdering her three babies by a jury at Reading Crown Court.
There were cheers as the jury acquitted 35-year-old pharmacist Trupti Patel - who put both hands over her mouth and let out a sob as she was cleared of three counts of murder.
Outside the court she said she was "absolutely delighted".
"Words can't describe how we've been feeling. It should never have come to court."
After the verdict, the NSPCC called for an overhaul of the way child death cases are investigated.
Mrs Patel's solicitor, Margaret Taylor, said in a statement: "Trupti Patel has spent the last year in torment.
"She walks from the court a free woman.
"She wants to publicly acknowledge the tremendous support she has received from her husband, friends and family."
The jury of 10 men and one woman acquitted Mrs Patel shortly after being sent out to deliberate on Wednesday, following a six-and-a-half week trial.
Her family and friends erupted with a cheer of "yes" from the public gallery as the verdicts were announced.
Mrs Patel closed her eyes and began to shake as the verdicts on Amar and Jamie were read out but began sobbing when the jury foreman gave the not guilty verdict on Mia.
Mrs Patel was arrested following the death of Mia, the third of her children to die.
She denied she had smothered her babies or restricted their breathing by squeezing their chests.
A spokesman for Thames Valley Police defended the force's decision to investigate.
"We took a decision that there was evidence which a jury should have an opportunity to decide on, as has now occurred," he said.
The NSPCC has now called for an overhaul of the way child deaths are investigated.
Chris Cloke, of the NSPCC, said: "Sometimes it can be very difficult to ascertain why infants die.
"It is therefore absolutely vital that these tragic incidents are properly investigated without stigmatising parents.
"The NSPCC wants to see systematic review and analysis of all child deaths by teams made up of health experts, police and social service professionals."
Joyce Epstein, director of the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths, said most sudden infant deaths were natural and that there was a high risk of it happening with more than one child in a family.
"Unfortunately, there is a current eagerness by some to view all sudden and unexpected deaths with suspicion, particularly where there is a second death in the family," she said.
Mrs Patel said they now wanted to "get back to some sort of normality" and said of her family: "They have never wavered. And that's what families are all about." |
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-39530515 | Eurozone finance ministers say they have agreed with Greece the main elements of a deal to unlock a delayed bailout payment.
Greece is now part way through its third eurozone bailout programme, worth up to 86bn euros (£74bn).
The programme has encountered repeated delays as the lenders monitor compliance with policy conditions.
Technical officials are expected to return to Athens soon to complete the negotiations.
The "in principle" deal, as European Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici called it, was agreed at a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Malta.
The main elements in the latest agreement are commitments to reduce spending on pensions from 2019 and to collect more income tax from 2020 by lowering the tax-free threshold. Together the two measures are intended to improve the Greek government's finances by the equivalent of 2% of the country's economic activity, or GDP.
To sweeten a pill that will be unpopular in Greece, the other eurozone countries agreed that Athens would be able take other measures to stimulate the economy, if the government finances perform better than expected.
The next step is that technical experts from three European institutions and the IMF will return to Athens to try to negotiate the remaining details.
The Dutch Finance Minister, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who chairs eurozone ministers' meetings, called for them to put the last dots on the i's and reach a full agreement as soon as possible at staff level - that's the staff of the institutions involved in monitoring the programme.
That is needed before there is political decision to make that delayed payment. Once there is a staff agreement, Mr Dijsselbloem said that the Eurogroup ministers would also look at the targets Greece would need to aim for in the government finances after the last bailout payments are made (due in 2018) and the question of debt sustainability - which means debt relief beyond what the eurozone has already provided.
Debt relief previously has been in the form of reduced interest rates and longer payment periods, rather than reducing the amount of the principal sum that must ultimately be repaid.
Further debt relief is likely to be in a similar form. Eurozone ministers have said it many times and it's politically more difficult for them with domestic political audiences if they were to explicitly write off a chunk of what they have lent.
The International Monetary Fund has long argued that Greece needs more debt relief. That has been behind its reluctance to contribute financially to the third bailout. (It did chip in to the first two). Its involvement in the third so far is as an adviser and monitor of Greek performance.
The rest of the eurozone, but especially Germany, would like the IMF to put some money in. That's not so much for the sake of reducing the eurozone contribution as for the better credibility they think the programme would have if the IMF did stump up some money.
But IMF staff are so far unwilling to even recommend it to their board, which is made up of representatives of the agency's member countries.
After the Malta meeting, IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said: "We are at a point where we think there are good prospects for successfully concluding discussions on these outstanding policy issues during the next mission to Athens.
"Such an agreement on policies will have to be followed by discussions with euro-area countries to ensure satisfactory assurances on a credible strategy to restore debt sustainability, before a programme is presented to the IMF executive board."
The key deadline for the next instalment from the eurozone is July. Greece needs additional funds for debt payments that fall due.
In Athens, the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said: "The Greek economy is ready to leave the crisis behind it."
But there is a lot of scepticism about that. Hugo Dixon of BreakingViews says that the current discussion will only buy Greece some more time, until mid-2018. Thereafter, he argues, Greece will probably need a fourth bailout. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/1507358.stm | Brighter students or easier exams?
A sixth former has cast doubt on the standards of public examinations, after scoring a C in A-level business studies on the strength of four hours of private tuition.
Alex Hobbs, 17, from Goring near Reading, said standards must be falling, as he was "no genius".
The teenager's claims follow a scathing attack on Thursday by retiring maths examiner, Jeffrey Robinson, who said pass marks at GCSE level were being systematically lowered.
Mr Robinson's allegations were fiercely rejected by the government, teachers' unions and examinations boards.
Alex, who starts in the upper sixth in September, went to a tutor three or four weeks before his exams for help with his AS-level in economics.
His tutor, Chris Sivewright, persuaded him to do a full A-level in business studies as well as four AS-levels.
"I passed with a C grade - and as I got two Bs and two Cs in my AS results, it's clear that I'm not some sort of genius and the only other solution is that either A-level standards are slipping or I've got some sort of supertutor!" said Alex.
"I was just overwhelmed, I wasn't expecting to get anything like that - I wasn't expecting to pass or maybe a D or an E at best.
"But it can't be right, can it? There has to be something going on with standards - they have to be going down.
"There's no way someone should be able to pass an A-level with four hours' tuition and reading a bit of a book," Alex said.
A spokeswoman from the Qualifications and Curriculum Agency said Alex was being humble and was clearly an intelligent young man, though not outstanding.
"We must remember that we're not talking about knowledge of the subject here - we're talking about passing an exam," she said.
The teenager would have been able to use transferable data and skills from his economics studies, she said.
"There is no evidence of standards falling, but there is now greater familiarity with the technique of taking exams, closer tuition from teachers and dedicated work on the part of pupils."
But Alex's tutor, Mr Sivewright, believes many public exams have got progressively easier over the years.
"If some of my A-grade candidates are getting too cocky, I just give them an old paper from a few years ago and they can't do it."
Some subjects were especially easy, he said.
"If people are good at economics and need another A-level, I tend to tell them to enrol for the business studies exam - they just turn up on the day and people pass!"
"I took an entire class through business studies A-level in two months and we got a 100% pass rate - and they were then free to do other A-levels," said Mr Sivewright.
Mr Sivewright, who is also principal of a tutorial college in Oxford, said too many people had got too much to lose by admitting exams were getting easier.
"If it was accepted that some A-levels are easy, universities would have to raise entrance levels and they've got all these spare places they want to fill, so they won't do that," he said.
"The exam boards make a huge difference because they compete by dropping standards," he claimed.
"It's a cartel of vested interests because boards are businesses and they make a lot of money selling marking guidelines and courses.
"Chief examiners appear on commercially-run Easter courses and, of course, write text books - so clearly they have a vested interest in two-year courses that are supposedly difficult," he said.
It was known that some exam boards set tougher papers than others, he said.
"But it's a pity that only when people retire or leave, like Chris Woodhead, do they start making noises - why didn't they do it before?"
The former chief inspector of schools, Chris Woodhead, said the government was failing to take claims of falling examination standards seriously.
Jeffrey Robinson was saying publicly what a number of chief examiners had being saying privately over the years, Mr Woodhead said.
"The fact that more people are getting university degrees doesn't mean that the university degrees maintain their intellectual rigour," he said.
"We've got 42% more candidates achieving top grades in GCSE than we did a decade ago, the minimum marks for the top grade in maths have been reduced by 25%.
"We've got a massive problem and the government refuses to acknowledge it."
Paul Sokoloff, convenor of the Joint Council Examining Board, said: "If you look at degree level pass rates they are going up year on year. I think it is the whole education system improving its performance."
"He believes it is happening in other subjects"
Gap years: A waste of time? |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/3997987.stm | US Attorney General John Ashcroft has resigned from the Bush cabinet, the White House has announced.
Commerce Secretary Don Evans, a close Bush friend, has also quit his post.
They are the first departures from President Bush's cabinet since he was re-elected for another four-year term last Tuesday.
Mr Ashcroft, in a letter announcing his departure, said the objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror had been achieved.
Correspondents in Washington say further cabinet changes are expected as President Bush prepares for his second term.
The BBC's Ian Pannell, in Washington, said neither announcement came as a surprise to Washington insiders.
Mr Ashcroft, who has been a lightning-rod for criticism in the administration, wrote in a five-page handwritten letter to Mr Bush that "the objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved".
"Yet I believe that the Department of Justice would be well served by new leadership and fresh inspiration," said Mr Ashcroft.
Meanwhile, Mr Evans wrote to the president that "while the promise of your second term shines bright, I have concluded with deep regret that it is time for me to return home".
Both Mr Ashcroft, 62, and Mr Evans, 58, have served in the Bush cabinet from the start of the administration in 2000.
Mr Ashcroft helped to lead the US war against terror after the 11 September 2001 attacks.
He drew up the Patriot Act, which gave the FBI and other agencies powers to tap phones, access private medical and library records, track internet usage and detain immigrants.
The president has responded by saying that he appreciated their service.
There will now be a process of looking for replacements, with suggestions that the administration will be looking to make the appointments as soon as possible, our correspondent says. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-47726017 | Experts cleaning a supposed imitation of a Botticelli painting have discovered it was actually created in the Renaissance master's own studio.
Extensive tests showed it did in fact originate from Botticelli's 15th Century workshop in Florence.
English Heritage said it had consulted experts at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the National Gallery to confirm the painting's origins.
Rachel Turnbull, English Heritage's senior collections conservator, said: "Stylistically it was too similar to be an imitation, it was of the right period, it was technically correct and it was painted on poplar, a material commonly used at the time.
"After removing the yellowing varnish, X-ray and infrared examination revealed under-drawing, including changes to the final composition uncommon in straight imitations."
The painting had been assumed to be a later copy by an unknown artist because it varied in detail to the larger original, which is on display at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
"Botticelli, like other contemporary Florentine painters, had an active studio which issued versions and adaptations, presumably at lower prices, of works that were popular," according to Professor Paul Joannides, emeritus professor of art history at the University of Cambridge.
"It is only relatively recently, with more highly developed methods of technical examination, that the status of such pictures can be - at least to an extent - determined."
The picture at English Heritage's Ranger's House in Greenwich, London, is now thought to be the closest version of Botticelli's 1487 masterpiece, which shows a melancholy Virgin Mary holding a baby Christ and a pomegranate, flanked by angels.
It was bought by diamond magnate Julius Wernher in 1897 and kept with his art collection at the Georgian villa in Greenwich.
Madonna of the Pomegranate will be on display at Ranger's House from 1 April.
How can you spot a real Botticelli? |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/cornwall/4696775.stm | The Highways Agency has highlighted a new road in Cornwall as an example of its commitment to Archaeology Week.
The agency said although work has started to ease the bottleneck on the A30 at Goss Moor, it is to survey aspects of an ancient settlement.
The site includes a rare 'fossilised' landscape, with walls, banks and hedges untouched since medieval times.
A spokeswoman said time and resources would be given to investigate any historic features which are discovered.
Ginny Clarke said: "The quality and rarity of these finds illustrate the importance of the care taken while developing and preparing for major road scheme.
"We're working to improve our assessment of the impact of our work on the landscape. We are also looking to enhance our work to predict the location of possible remains so we can determine the best approach to be taken."
The Highways Agency is supporting the Council for British Archaeology's week as part of its commitment to protect the country's cultural heritage.
It said as builder and operator of England's motorways and major A-road network, it is committed to minimising the impact of its projects on historic landscapes.
The new road in Cornwall, which is expected to take two years to complete, will skirt the northern edge of Goss Moor, connecting two dualled sections between Bodmin and Indian Queens.
It should ease congestion around the Iron Bridge, a notorious traffic and accident blackspot.
But the £69m scheme has been criticised by some environmentalists who claim it could wipe out rare species of flora and fauna. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11177346 | The United Nations' food agency has called a special meeting of policy makers to discuss the recent rise in global food prices.
The announcement came after Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin extended the country's ban on grain exports on Thursday.
This added to fears that prices of food staples would continue to rise.
The meeting will take place on 24 September, probably in Rome, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization said.
"In the past few weeks, global cereal markets experienced a sudden surge in international wheat prices on concerns over wheat shortages," the agency said.
"The purpose of holding the meeting is for exporting and importing countries to engage in constructive discussions on appropriate reactions to the current market situation."
Mr Putin did not say when exactly the Russian grain export ban, originally to run from 15 August to 31 December, would be lifted, but said that it would not be before next year's harvest had been reaped.
Russia is one of the world's biggest producers of wheat, barley and rye and was hit hard by a drought this summer.
The heatwave destroyed crops in many parts of the country, pushing food prices up.
This year's crop could be as low as 60 million tonnes, but Russia needs almost 80 million just to cover domestic consumption, analysts say.
Other key grain producers have also reported shortages, causing the price of wheat on international commodities exchanges to rise more than 50% since the beginning of July.
Grain prices on commodity markets shot to near two-year highs last month as investors digested worsening news of the Russian harvests.
The FAO is concerned at the speed at which prices have increased over the last two months.
Its economist, Abdolreza Abbassian, said the latest Russian move to extend the ban would prolong the "volatility and anxiety" already on the markets.
But the UN agency has stressed throughout that the situation is very different to the food crisis two years ago.
Prices are currently lower, production levels higher and stocks more abundant than during the 2007-8 period, when shortages sparked riots across the world.
"It still does not mean that we are going to have a crisis," Mr Abbassian said.
"It does highlight a very big problem here: a very large exporting country with a great influence on the market can make unilateral decisions like that. It causes disturbances of the market."
The effect of rising wheat prices is reflected in the FAO's global food price index, which covers 55 food commodities. This week's report said it had hit its highest level for two years in August, largely driven by higher wheat prices.
Last month's 5% rise was the biggest month-on-month increase since November 2009, the FAO said.
Higher grain prices could feed through to products such as bread and beer. But as they are also used as animal feed, they could also drive up the prices of dairy products, eggs and meat.
Analysts suggest that competition could soften the impact on consumers, with retailers and producers unwilling or unable to pass on in full higher raw material costs to shoppers.
Some big food companies have also already signed future supply contracts at prices that are lower than on international commodity exchanges.
Rises will be felt more keenly in developing countries, where food makes up a bigger proportion of household spending.
Higher prices caused people to take to the streets in the Mozambique capital Maputo this week, resulting in violence in which seven people were killed.
Pressures such as a weakening currency have caused bread prices in the southern African country to rise 30% so far this year.
"There are other issues at play there - which is not uncommon in poorer countries," Mr Abbassian told BBC World News.
"Even a small increase in the price of food, which is so important to them... can spark a problem.
"Food prices, and wheat in particular, are so important for food security and even the political stability of countries."
Should we fear high wheat prices? |
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-33631609 | New York state fast food workers' wages will eventually rise to $15 (£9.60) an hour, after a state wage board unanimously recommended the increase.
New York City workers will be the first to benefit, with the increase due to be in place by the end of 2018.
Fast food workers in the rest of the state will have to wait until mid 2021 for the rise.
State Governor Andrew Cuomo said the vote marked "one of the really great days of my administration".
The state minimum wage is currently $8.75.
"You cannot live and support a family on $18,000 a year in the state of New York, period," he said.
"This is just the beginning. We will not stop until we reach true economic justice," he added.
New York mayor Bill de Blasio said he would now push for every worker in the city, not just fast food staff, to get a higher salary.
"This only underscores how necessary it is to raise the wage across the board. As much as fast food workers need and deserve a raise - and we know they do - we must ensure that every worker gets a living wage," he said.
While Mr de Blasio has pushed for a higher minimum wage, he does not have the power to set it.
As a result, Governor Cuomo created the panel to look at wages in the fast food industry.
Now the panel has backed the increase, it is expected to be backed by the acting state commissioner of labour, marking the last significant hurdle before it becomes mandatory.
The move is expected to affect around 180,000 workers which are employed in the fast food industry in New York state.
The decision follows similar minimum wage increases in other US cities, including Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The University of California system earlier said that it would raise its minimum wage to $15 for all hourly workers.
But the move was not universally welcomed. Restaurant owners warned that the increase would force them to either reduce their staff numbers or increase menu prices.
Jack Bert, a franchisee who owns seven McDonald's in New York City, said it had been "a flawed process".
"Singling out fast food restaurants while ignoring other industries that hire workers who are paid under $15 is unfair and discriminatory, harms New York workers, and puts some New York businesses - including mine and my fellow New York McDonald's franchisees - at a competitive disadvantage," he said.
And Randy Maestro, a lawyer hired by a group of franchise owners, said the group was looking into whether the decision could be challenged in court. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-39790736 | Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has missed his third cabinet meeting in a row amid ongoing questions about the state of his health.
There are concerns about a leadership vacuum as one of Africa's largest economies struggles to pulls itself out of recession, correspondents say.
Information Minister Lai Mohammed said Mr Buhari "needed to rest".
In March, Mr Buhari returned from seven weeks of sick leave in the UK where he was treated for an undisclosed illness.
When he returned home he said he had never been so ill in his life.
To calm fears, the president's wife Aisha Buhari tweeted on Tuesday that her husband was not as sick as is being perceived.
But as he has not been seen in public for more than a week, Nigerians are continuing to discuss the issue.
Should Nigerians be worried about their president's health?
Do Nigerians go on holiday?
In her tweets, Mrs Buhari said that the president was continuing to "carry out his responsibilities" and has been meeting with ministers.
Mr Buhari has rarely been seen outside of his official residence in the eight weeks since he returned from the UK.
But the real controversy began when he stopped attending an important weekly cabinet meeting four weeks ago.
#WhereisBuhari started trending online and the writer Wole Soyinka, as well as prominent civil society activists, is calling on the president to release his medical records and to take official medical leave once again.
This is a crucial year for Nigeria and important decisions need to be made as the country struggles to get out of recession.
The presidency is keen to assure the public that Mr Buhari is still very much in charge because a power vacuum, or even the perception of it, could have very damaging effects.
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, who was the acting president while Mr Buhari was away in the UK, chaired the cabinet meeting in the capital, Abuja.
On Monday, a group of prominent Nigerians has called on Mr Buhari to take medical leave as concerns about his health grow.
They said in a statement that the president's absence from the cabinet meetings, as well as the weekly Friday Muslim prayers, "has fuelled further speculation and rumours" about his medical condition.
The 13 said they felt "compelled" to ask Mr Buhari "to heed the advice of his personal physicians by taking a rest to attend to his health without any further delay".
Mr Buhari's personal assistant Bashir Ahmed said the president had met Justice Minister Abubakar Malami and other officials at the presidential villa on Tuesday as part of his official duties.
Last week, presidential spokesman Garba Shehu said Mr Buhari was "taking things slowly, as he fully recovers from the long period of treatment" in the UK.
26 April: Misses second cabinet meeting and is "working from home" |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25102915 | The lower house of the Japanese parliament has approved a state secrecy bill that imposes stiffer penalties on civil servants who leak secrets and journalists who try to obtain them.
The move had been criticised by reporters and freedom of speech campaigners as a heavy-handed effort to suppress press freedom.
But the government says the move is needed for national security reasons.
The bill now goes to the upper house, where it is also likely to be passed.
Critics say the new law could allow the government to withhold more information and ultimately undermine Japan's democracy.
The bill was approved by the lower house - the more powerful of the two chambers in the Japanese parliament - after it was delayed following hours of protests by opposition lawmakers.
The bill's supporters in the government confidently expect it to be approved by the upper house next month.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party says the law is needed to encourage the US and other allies to share national security information with Japan.
Correspondents say that it is part of Mr Abe's efforts to strengthen his country's role in global security.
"This law is designed to protect the safety of the people," Mr Abe said, promising that people's concerns about the bill would be addressed through further parliamentary debate.
The bill allows heads of ministries and agencies indefinitely to make secret 23 types of information related to defence, diplomacy, counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism.
Under the law, public servants or others cleared for access to state secrets could be jailed for up to 10 years for leaking information.
Journalists and others in the private sector convicted of encouraging such leaks could get up to five years in jail if they use "grossly inappropriate" means to solicit the information.
Opponents of the legislation say the new rules fail to address basic concerns on civil liberties and the public's right to know.
They say that the regulations will adversely affect freedom of information and block critical reporting of the government.
Campaigners have also warned that reporting on a wide range of sensitive issues will be affected by the changes, which will also have a dampening impact on whistleblowers.
The Japanese move has been welcomed by the US, which wants a stronger Japan to offset China's military rise.
But correspondents say it has also raised fears that Japan could be edging back toward its militaristic past, when free speech was severely restrained.
Some experts say that the new legislation eases the way for Mr Abe's campaign to revise Japan's US-drafted pacifist constitution. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21956743 | Who, What, Why: What is 'ungoogleable'?
The word "ungoogleable" has been removed from a list of new Swedish words after a trademark spat. But it raises the question of what can and can't be found with a search engine.
Today Google appears to be the font of all data.
The idea that something can't be found online is strange enough to have spawned its own adjective.
The word "ungoogleable" is in the headlines after a dispute between the search engine giant and Sweden's language watchdog.
The Language Council of Sweden wanted to include "ungoogleable" - or "ogooglebar" - in its annual list of new Swedish words. But it defined the term as something that cannot be found with any search engine.
Google wanted the Swedish translation to be changed to refer only to Google searches, and the Council opted to remove the word altogether to avoid a lengthy legal battle.
The spat raises the question of just what "ungoogleable" means. Or more specifically, are some things still impossible to find with a search engine? And if so, is it a deliberate strategy?
To be ungoogleable might be a blessing or a curse.
A firm that chooses to call itself 367 may be shooting itself in the foot - people searching online will probably encounter a lot of bus routes before they get to the company.
It's a similar story for an academic with a common name trying to promote research. Being called Mark Smith, for instance, might bring up thousands of other Mark Smiths online.
But others may actively seek to be ungoogleable.
The internet, unlike humans, has an almost flawless memory. That is why it's so useful. But it can also be embarrassing.
Imagine the person who has been photographed in a compromising position at university and had the picture posted online. What happens when they try to get a job as a lawyer? For this very reason there are firms that promise to move people down search-engine lists.
Ungoogleability increasingly means privacy, says Cameron Hulett, executive director of digital marketing company Undertone.
"There are firms managing people's online reputations. Ungoogleable is the extreme form - you are not just managing it you are removing it altogether," he says.
Then there are online networks that act like auction sites for people trading in drugs, erotica and other forbidden items.
Websites such as these use software to create anonymous networks. And with questionable sites that are accessible, a search engine might decide to withhold access to users.
But the desire to be ungoogleable goes far wider than that. Prof Ralph Schroeder, from the Oxford Internet Institute, points to democracy activists in China who may need to operate an anonymous website to escape a crackdown on their activities.
Or it might be as simple as a pub quiz wanting to prevent cheating.
Trying to outwit Google's search capability has been popular for a while. A Googlewhack is two words that elicit only one result. The comedian Dave Gorman wrote a book about it after noticing that a phrase on his website "Francophile namesakes" only delivered one result.
Nowadays most people using Google will respond to the promptings of Google Autocomplete. So stumbling upon a Googlewhack is less likely.
Paywalls are another factor. Used by academic journals and newspapers such as The Times and Financial Times they restrict what users can easily find via google.
For some, being ungoogleable is about being unknowable. It's about preserving one's mystique.
Irene Serra chose the name -isq for her band deliberately to make it hard to find online.
As it contains a hyphen, it cannot deliver an easy result. The band have a website but they don't want it to be too easy to find.
"We didn't want to give everything away straightaway," says Serra. "If you want to hear about us you'll need to try just a little bit harder. And then when you do actually find us online we have lots in place."
It also allows them to easily keep control of all the domain names.
Seb Mower, a search engine optimisation consultant, says that even supposedly ungoogleable things can usually be found. Most people use Google in haste. But a bit of thinking can often turn up the correct result.
For instance, the band -isq will appear third in the list on Google if speechmarks are put around the search term.
Where Google really struggles, he says, is to show pictures of text. "If you wanted all the back issues of the Times, none of that information would be indexable."
For some, it seems, being ungoogleable is an unfortunate state of affairs. For others, the ignorance of Google's algorithms is bliss. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-45494934 | Rail services are being affected in and out of Glasgow Queen Street station after a person was hit a train.
ScotRail said the line to Bellgrove in the east end of the city had been blocked following an incident at about 06:30.
A number of trains between Glasgow and Cumbernauld via Falkirk and services to Helensburgh have been disrupted.
Commuters are being advised to use their rail tickets on buses and the Subway.
A statement on ScotRail's website said: "The emergency services are dealing with an incident between Queen St and Bellgrove and unfortunately that means we can't run trains as the line is currently blocked.
"We're working closely with the emergency services to get the line reopen, but we've no estimate for this at present."
A British Transport Police spokeswoman said: "Shortly after 6.30am today, officers were called to the line close to Bellgrove station following a report of a person being struck by a train.
"Colleagues from the ambulance service also attended, however a person was sadly pronounced dead at the scene.
"Officers are working to inform their family and making enquiries into how they came to be on the tracks." |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-42839462 | Security researchers have posted "friendly warnings" to users of Amazon's cloud data storage service whose private content has been made public, the BBC has learned.
The BBC found almost 50 warnings posted to the firm's servers. Many had more than one warning uploaded to them.
The messages urged owners to secure their information before it was stolen by malicious hackers.
There was a rash of data breaches involving Amazon Web Services in 2017.
Misconfigured settings by users were repeatedly blamed.
Although Amazon is best known for its online shopping service, its AWS division serves many of the world's biggest businesses as well as governments and other public bodies.
The messages discovered on the US firm's data stores varied.
Some just told the owners that their settings exposed data and others were more explicit in their warnings about what could happen.
One said: "Please fix this before a bad guys finds it."
The BBC passed its list of sites that had received warning messages to Amazon as week ago, so it could contact the customers and suggest they review their settings.
In essence, these machines act like the hard drive on your desktop computer and can hold almost any type of data or file.
Organisations use these cloud-based stores for all kinds of tasks. Some use them to hold images, documents and other files that populate their websites. Others use them as repositories for detailed data that is mined or analysed to help other bits of their business.
They are also popular because sometimes they can be set up using only a credit card - much more quickly than would be possible via a company's internal admin systems.
Security researcher Robbie Wiggins, who regularly seeks out insecure cloud systems, said he had received a range of reactions when telling an organisation that their data was wide open.
"I've had a few responses ranging from monetary rewards to thanks," he told the BBC. "I've struggled with a good few, especially the government for Argentina."
Often companies made it difficult to report problems because no contact details were available for security teams or server administrators.
Mr Wiggins said he currently had a list of about 2,000 insecure data stores, also known as buckets, about which he was steadily informing affected organisations.
"Lots of buckets appear to been abandoned and forgotten about," said Mr Wiggins.
The main target of the security experts scanning for mistakes are servers supporting Amazon's Simple Storage Service (S3) - part of its AWS business.
Over the last 18 months, Uber, Verizon, Alteryx, the WWE, US defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, Dow Jones and three data mining companies have exposed data via misconfigured S3 buckets. Between them the firms lost data covering the digital identities of hundreds of millions of people.
Robin Wood, who wrote a bucket-scanning tool that many researchers use, said the ease with which the storage can be bought and configured made them very attractive to a lot of companies.
They were particularly useful for short-term projects that had to be set up and run quickly.
Often, said Mr Wood, the buckets set up for a particular short-term project were mothballed once the venture was finished. As time went by the software on these abandoned sites became easier to successfully attack because it was no longer updated with patches for known bugs.
"It's amazing how many larger firms have a website or web hosting package that the security and IT teams know nothing about," he told the BBC.
Other stores were left open to get around configuration problems that can crop up when several different firms work on the same project, he said.
"What tends to happen is that if something is not working properly they will open it up a bit to see if that fixes it," said Mr Wood. "They just keep clicking until it works."
Anyone coming across the data might be able to scoop up valuable information, such as database files and login data, that could help them gain access to other networks of the same company, he said.
Scanning for vulnerable buckets was straightforward because of the way Amazon organised its service, he added.
A spokeswoman for Amazon said the default configuration settings on its S3 service kept data private. She said it had created several tools to make it easier for S3 customers to secure data or work out who could access it.
For instance, she said, the main management screen that customers use to manage buckets used a "traffic light" system to show which were open to public view and which were more tightly controlled.
And, she added, just because buckets were public did not mean they were wrongly configured. Many large organisations, such as Nasa and the Open Street Map project, made huge amounts of information available to spur collaboration, she said.
Despite this help many firms still got cloud security wrong, said James Hatch, director of applied intelligence at BAE Cyber Services.
This was partly because firms did not appreciate what they were buying when they signed up for an online data storage service such as S3.
Many people regarded cloud services as being akin to a hotel, in that they relied on the organisation to provide the working infrastructure that they then used, he told the BBC.
Instead, he said, the service they got was much more basic.
"When you are using pure infrastructure cloud services it's one step away from that. The starting point is more like an empty plot of land," said Mr Hatch. "They might give you the right building blocks to get the security right, but it's up to you to do it." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8099948.stm | Palestinians have rejected the Israeli prime minister's conditions for a two-state solution, saying he has "paralysed" the peace process.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a major policy speech, accepted the creation of a Palestinian state but only if it was demilitarised.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas's spokesman said his comments challenged Palestinian, Arab and US positions.
But the US said Mr Netanyahu's stance was an "important step forward".
In a landmark speech, weeks after US President Barack Obama urged him to agree a two-state plan, Mr Netanyahu said the Palestinians must accept Israel as a Jewish state.
He said a Palestinian state must have no army, no control of its air space and no way of smuggling in weapons.
His speech provoked anger among Palestinian officials.
Mr Abbas's spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah said: "Netanyahu's remarks have sabotaged all initiatives, paralysed all efforts being made and challenges the Palestinian, Arab and American positions," Reuters news agency reported.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the speech "closed the door to permanent status negotiations".
"We ask the world not to be fooled by his use of the term Palestinian state because he qualified it.
"He declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel, said refugees would not be negotiated and that settlements would remain."
Benjamin Netanyahu has shifted. He has used the word "state", when it comes to Palestinian self-rule.
In another deeper sense, though, there has been no shift. Mr Netanyahu's closest aides have been saying for months that they have two over-arching pre-conditions: a public Palestinian acceptance of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, and a complete demilitarisation of any future Palestinian entity.
And Mr Netanyahu tersely dismissed the US call for an end to settlement expansion: these people have to live, he said. He described them as "pioneers" and "principled".
This is a speech which will shore up the prime minister's position within his right-wing coalition. It is, whatever you think of the rights and wrongs of it, a powerful forehand deep into the back court of the Americans. It will be fascinating to see when and how the Americans return the ball.
Mr Erekat added: "The peace process has been moving at the speed of a tortoise. Tonight, Netanyahu has flipped it over on its back."
In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri described the speech as "racist" and called on Arab nations to "form stronger opposition" towards Israel.
But the White House called the policy outline an "important step forward", as did French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.
A White House statement said Mr Obama "believes this solution can and must ensure both Israel's security and the fulfilment of the Palestinians' legitimate aspirations for a viable state, and he welcomes Prime Minister Netanyahu's endorsement of that goal".
The BBC's Sarah Morris in Washington says Mr Netanyahu's comments have provided a lot of encouragement to the White House, but it is uncertain whether they will be enough given the Israeli prime minister's refusal to budge on the issue of Jewish settlements.
The statement made no mention of Mr Netanyahu's demilitarisation caveat.
A potential stumbling block in any future peace deal - that of settlements - also went unmentioned in the statement, our correspondent adds.
In his own keynote Middle East speech in Cairo on 4 June, Mr Obama stressed that he wanted all settlement activity to stop.
But Mr Netanyahu said settlers were not "enemies of peace" and did not move from his position of backing "natural growth" in existing settlements.
Former US President Jimmy Carter warned that the US and Israeli governments would be on a "collision course" if Israeli settlement activity continued in the West Bank.
The settlers group Yesha condemned Mr Netanyahu's speech: "We deplore that the prime minister has agreed to the creation of a demilitarised Palestinian state after he has said for years that such a state, even demilitarised, would be a threat to Israel." |
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/entertainment-arts-12080075/supermarkets-joining-record-companies-in-music-deals | Supermarkets making music deals Jump to media player As CD sales decline, some artists are signing exclusive contracts with stores supermarkets to ensure sales.
Despite their popularity at this time of year, CD sales are in decline.
Some famous artists are by-passing record deals altogether and signing exclusive contracts with supermarkets to ensure sales. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-27402400 | The UK employment minister has said rising food bank use is not the fault of Westminster's welfare reforms.
In a letter to the Scottish government, Esther McVey said food bank use was increasing across a number of different countries.
She said there was "no robust evidence linking food bank usage to welfare reform", despite reports from the charities suggesting this is the case.
The SNP described her letter as "heartless".
Ms McVey also turned down a request to meet publicly with the Scottish Parliament's welfare committee, but said she would meet them informally.
In her letter, seen by the BBC, she stated "the rise in food banks predates most of the welfare reforms this government has put in place".
However, figures from the Trussell Trust have indicated an increase of more than 300% in the past year.
Ewan Gurr from the Trussell Trust said: "All the empirical evidence and research shows that welfare reform is the main force driving increasing demand for food banks.
"Food banks are responding to a need that has always existed but welfare reform has exacerbated that.
"The rising cost of food and fuel is also a factor driving in the need for food banks but all the research indicates the key factor is welfare reform.
"All we are asking is that the UK government takes note of this and provides some creative solutions. In 2012-13 the Trussell Trust supported 14,318 people. In the past financial year we supported 71,428. The numbers speak for themselves."
The letter from Ms McVey came after growing cross-party concern amongst MSPs about the increasing demand for food banks in Scotland.
Neil Couling of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) gave evidence to the Scottish welfare reform committee last month. After which Minister for Housing and Welfare Margaret Burgess wrote to Ms McVey to express her concerns. This letter was her response.
SNP MSP and member of the welfare committee Kevin Stewart said: "This heartless letter from Esther McVey shows that the UK government has washed their hands of the ever growing number of people being forced to rely on food banks.
"The extent to which the Westminster government will bend the facts in order to try dodge their responsibility on this issue is astonishing.
"The crux of the letter is that Ms McVey has refused to formally attend the welfare reform committee to answer questions about the very policies she is enforcing on vulnerable people.
He added: "The UK Minister has offered some form of informal meeting - but what has she got to hide?
"This offering is effectively her snubbing the Scottish Parliament and the people of Scotland - it is a gutless proposition."
A DWP spokesman said: "The truth is that we're spending £94bn a year on working age benefits and the welfare system supports millions of people who are on low incomes or unemployed so they can meet their basic needs.
"The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) say there are fewer people struggling with their food bills compared with a few years ago, and our reforms will improve the lives of some of the poorest families in our communities by promoting work and helping people to lift themselves out of poverty." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/732245.stm | "Possibly had she been equipped for the sport she might have survived"
An 18-year-old girl has been killed after plunging 30ft over a waterfall at a beauty spot in a national park.
Carley Andrews, from Flint, was walking with friends in the Snowdonia National Park, north Wales, when she fell from the edge of the waterfall at Pontgyfyng near Capel Curig, Gwynedd, on Sunday.
It is thought the group had been canyoning without proper equipment.
Emergency services were called, with the mountain rescue teams and a helicopter from RAF Valley.
Her body was recovered from the rocks by rescuers.
Chris Lloyd, spokesman for Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Service, said: "It seems she had fallen down a small waterfall and either been trapped by the current and drowned or had banged her head.
"I couldn't see any visible injury but although she was given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, she didn't regain consciousness.
"It looks as if the woman and her friends had decided to do some impromptu canyoning but without any equipment.
"It can be a dangerous sport and you should have helmets and buoyancy aids because the rocks are very slippery and the river can be unpredictable."
Canyoning - too much of a thrill? |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2134063.stm | The biggest of the reform factions in Iran, the Participation Front, has begun its annual party conference in the capital, Tehran, amidst growing impatience over the blocking of reforms by an entrenched hard-line minority.
Massive election victories have given the reform movement control of both the presidency and parliament, but their efforts to bring about change have been largely blocked by unelected bodies controlled by the hardliners.
One of the reform movement's top strategists, Saeed Hajjarian, was greeted by applause at the conference.
With the help of a walking frame, he had managed to struggle up onto the stage to make the opening address, although his voice is distorted and hard to understand.
That is because he was shot in the head and very nearly killed by a right-wing extremist two years ago.
The man convicted for shooting him, Saeed Asgar, was originally sentenced to 15 years in jail, but he is already back on the streets.
He has returned to university in south Tehran and he is being allowed to publish a magazine.
For many scandalised reformists, those facts symbolise the way power works in Iran today and the problems facing the reform movement.
The head of the Participation Front, Mohammed Reza Khatami, asked: "How can we hold our heads up in the international community when we have a judiciary which allows convicted terrorists to roam the streets, while it locks up journalists and thinkers for expressing their ideas?"
He expressed concern about what he called a trend towards dictatorship in the country and said that unelected bodies were using their power on a factional basis to block the expressed wishes of the people.
By doing this, he said, they risked widening the gap between rulers and public and bringing the legitimacy of the regime into question.
With general elections just 18 months away and already looming large, time may be starting to run out for the reformists.
Some are already advocating that they should pull out of government and leave the conservative minority to its own devices.
Mohammed Reza Khatami said that would be a decision for the reform movement as a whole, not just the Participation Front.
He argued that the best course was still dialogue and persuasion. He took heart from the belief that even if the reform movement were blocked in the political arena, nothing could prevent changes taking place in Iranian society. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-berkshire-41687606 | An "urgent" police search is under way for a missing man and his two sons.
Michael John Cole, 43, Michael Lee Cole, eight, and Harry Cole, aged seven, were reported missing from Arborfield in Berkshire on 2 October.
Supt Shaun Virtue of Thames Valley Police said he did not believe the father posed "any immediate risk" to the boys but that there were concerns for their long-term welfare.
The force said the boys parents are currently separated.
It added that a "substantial amount of work" had been carried out after the initial missing persons report was made, but since the granting of a court order it could now make a public appeal.
The family are part of the travelling community and the boys parents both maintain parental responsibility for the children, shared with the local authority.
They were last seen in Grazeley, near Reading, on 8 September, and the boys have not been in school since.
In his appeal, Supt Virtue said: "Any information, no matter how insignificant you think it might be, about Michael John Cole or the two boys, might help our investigation to ensure they are found safe and well."
He added: "We have had help from a number of family members, friends and local residents during our investigation but so far, unfortunately, we have been unable to locate Michael John and his two sons."
Supt Virtue said there were concerns about their "access to education and to the National Health Service should it be required in the future".
"We're not clear around the motivation of Michael taking the two boys off," he later told the BBC.
"We don't think they're under immediate risk from Michael, however, the longer they're away, the bigger the risk that they have."
He said his message to Mr Cole was that "this has gone on too long, and what we would ask is that Michael return home with the two boys - hopefully they're all safe and well."
Mr Cole is described as white, of medium build, with short dark hair, and was last seen with a dark beard.
Michael Lee Cole is white, of medium build, with short blond hair and blue eyes.
Harry Cole is white, of a large build, with short blond hair and blue eyes.
The boys' father is said to have links in the county to Wokingham, Bracknell and Reading.
Mr Cole also has connections to Basingstoke in Hampshire, Ludlow and Shrewsbury in Shropshire, and Bridgend and Newport in Wales. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7553958.stm | Reforming the economics of food production and supply would be beneficial for a number of environmental and social problems, argues Peter Baker. A key issue, he says, is understanding the energy involved in putting food on your plate.
What's this got to do with small farmers and global food chains?
The answer is that all the issues mentioned above intersect over small farmers.
If we can't quite get a grip on what is happening to the world, we won't be able to do a good job for them, and we'll waste a lot of resources in the process.
It's perfectly reasonable to want to assist farmers to build a better life by adding value.
It's also perfectly reasonable to expect their produce to be fresh and non-toxic. And it's only natural to want to facilitate this process through aid, technical assistance, capacity building and the like.
But the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
I had originally planned to call this article Supermarkets, Smallholders and the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
The Second Law is about order; the Universe is inexorably heading to increased randomness and disorder.
For practical purposes, this does not have to be a problem because we can increase order locally by hard work, by expending energy. But in the process we create greater disorder (heat and waste) elsewhere.
If there is plenty of energy and plenty of "elsewhere", then we don't have to worry.
Indeed, for our whole existence, we largely haven't worried; in fact the whole world order, built on trade and economics, hasn't worried.
Biological systems know all about thermodynamics. All living things are highly ordered assemblies of molecules continuously battling against disorder.
Commodity chains must also obey the Second Law; in a sense, they are living things, creating highly ordered products and emitting significant waste and heat in the process.
For example, a recent study looking at Nicaraguan coffee production and processing showed that the total energy embodied in coffee exported to several countries - though not all - was not compensated by the dollar price paid for that energy.
Essentially, the conclusion was that the country is exporting subsidised energy.
It could well be that coffee is still the best way for farmers to earn a living and that the available energy could not readily be put to a better purpose. But it should at least make a country's decision-makers wonder about the long term policy, the true value of exported products and how sustainable a country's commodity chains will be in an energetically expensive future.
Look too at a modern high value vegetable chain. The orderliness required to plant, grow, harvest, process, pack, store, monitor, administer, transport, display and sell the produce in a supermarket is simply staggering, and the expended energy intense.
As an example, tomato production in the US consumes four times as many calories as the calorific value of the tomatoes created.
The point of this article may now be apparent. We are intervening, politically and normatively, in very complex systems that we only partially understand.
This is not a tirade about supermarkets; no one is forcing farmers into these chains. Indeed, the retail sector has only done its job: ordering and quantifying according to its own criteria, to a state of near optimal efficiency.
It's just that the rest of us have not been able to match its brilliance.
And it's not about food miles. The argument about the cost to the environment versus the gains to poor rural farmers has its pros and cons.
Instead, it's about different sorts of sustainability and the clash of very different interests.
The economic argument, revealed through agribusiness plans, may well be very strong. But these are inevitably rather short-term positions, and the funds invested may be hedged for exchange rate changes, freight costs and other risks.
When these are just stand-alone business operations then we could leave it at that - they invest their money and take their chances.
But it's no longer a matter of a few agribusiness operations in a few developing countries. With the EU's Economic Partnership Agreements now being signed, for instance, countries in the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group are on course to completely open their borders to food trade, and will be encouraged to export whatever products they can to the EU.
Foreign investment will descend on certain countries and will look for good deals on infrastructure. Politicians there may feel obliged to provide subsidised water, road and other infrastructure to secure new export initiatives, and they in turn will look for donor support to carry them through.
Trade departments of development banks and other donors will examine the short-to-medium-term economic argument, but may not adequately determine whether this is sustainable into the long term.
Hence, before significant public funds are assigned to this end, we must do our utmost to ensure they are well spent.
Getting back to the Second Law; agribusiness operations in under-developed countries are highly ordered physical and information entities producing products with high embodied energy.
They exist in a landscape of increasing disorder caused by growing populations and a degrading environment.
Could locally-produced cassava flour substitute for wheat flour imports?
Trucks carrying away the produce along bumpy rural roads sometimes pass food aid trucks coming in the opposite direction. For example, some $45m (£22.5m) of food aid came from the US to Kenya last year.
Even before its sea voyage, the calorific value of US wheat is only twice the amount of calories expended to produce it. Compare this with cassava production in Tanzania where 23 times the calorific value is gained for each calorie of human energy input.
Is it energetically sound, socially advisable and economically sensible in the long term to encourage and sustain such long two-way supply chains that evolved in a low-cost energy era?
CARE International has recently declined the food aid it gets for Kenya, suggesting that it is distorting local agriculture. Are they right? How can they and donors make the right decisions?
Could it be more sustainable and cost effective for donors to pay farmers a "fair" price to develop food production for local markets - based on costs of fuel, importing food, the risk of the supply chain collapsing or moving to another country, and so on?
There are many possibilities and a large number of variables, but the most important is to find out how close to the margins of impossibility any business plan might approach.
Surely at some point, let's say between $50 and $500 per barrel of oil, it no longer makes any sense to simultaneously export and import food high in embodied energy.
But we simply lack the user-friendly models and metrics that decision-makers need to calculate such figures and project them into the future.
So private standards are fine; but there should be public standards too, or at least a set of criteria based on the most fundamental laws of physics and biology, before significant public funds are spent.
Do you agree with Peter Baker? Does our current system of food production and distribution make sense? What are the factors preventing reform? Should the price of food products reflect the energy involved in making them?
His arguments are totally cogent and I agree with them.
However, there is this old saw - Give a man a fish and you will feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will sit on the river bank and drink beer all day !!
Want to eat local? Come to Texas: I picked fresh oranges off the tree in my front yard on Christmas day! Not only did I get fresh fruit: I got it while dressed in shorts and sandals on a 70-degree day in the middle of "winter"!
Thanks Peter, your article makes sense thermodynamically. I think, the supply chain inefficiencies are due to external factors such as consumption-driven economic development, international politics, etc. No matter what, we will always be more efficient by reducing the disctance between the point of production and the point of consumption. Accordingly, if we eat the corn directly without feeding it to cattle and then eating them, we will be more environmentally-friendly and sustainable.
No one ever thinks of the real cost of bringing bananas to northern countries. Agribusiness is in the business of making money and the food they produce is a byline. They have to satisfy their shareholders. Consumers are secondary. What happens to countries where monoculture has replaced native food production. This is the price for cheap food we get in North America. The cost to others is immeasurable.
Wow, this really has us all thinking. Thanks every one.
I rent 4 garden plots at under 100 a year. I can walk to them but prefer to drive as I am 73 and retired. In one area I have 8 trees (2 pear, 4 peach, 1 nectarine and 1 apricot). In the other areas I have tomatoes, beets, beans, garlic, peas, flowers, cucumbers, pumpkin, radishes, onions, raspberries, potatoes and sometimes other things. As it is a Mediterranian climate I can grow something all year long and do. I eat as much of it as I can and share some with family and fellow gardners as do they giving me eggplant and zucchini etc from their plots. I put in a few hours a week, try not to over water and freeze much of it for later use. It is a lot of work but it is a healthy enjoyable pastime also. The flowers, which I do not eat but enjoy, probably give me so much joy that I stay healthy enough to continue gardening for the food products. The grubbing around in the dirt in the cool hours of dawn and sunset are part of the joy of gardening. I use worm droppings for fertilizer and the tools are provided by my garden club, keeping to a minimum my costs (my ammenities fees monthly pay for them mostly). The only problems are cute little bunnies, various bugs and human thieves, as well as a few sore muscles when I over do it. I wish more people would do this, but they won't. Last year my friend picked 1,500 tomatoes from his patch and donated some to others and to the local Orange County Outreach (they maintain a food bank for those down on their luck temporarily). Some older people have been found dead in their gardens with a smile on their face as they were doing what they most enjoyed well into their 90's. I see myself in this article and sense that there needs to be a change in our general outlook on life before much of it goes through any changes. The golf players nearby are having fun in their own way. To each his own, live and let live is great, but when it comes right down to it, destroying the world to have quick big bucks will destroy me too and I do not like that at all. Soon our plots will be taken away and cost effective money making residences will replace them. The food, the joy, the exercise, the health and the happiness will not matter in the equation. Values differ. Housing and money in the bank usually wins out and the power seekers are strong enough to win most of the time.
Is it a problem that the tomato that I just enjoyed took a lot of energy to produce? Will it stop me having another delicious tomato tomorrow?
Not until the price changes to reflect the energy expended? What proportion of the price is energy-related? Probably the square-root of not a lot.
Most of the other costs are reduced by mass-production which implies specialisation which drives the existence of global cash crops.
The underlying cause that is driving this energy inefficient model is the labour-cost difference between the first world and the third world. The solution would be either to abandon the minimum wage in the first world or implement it in the third world. How do you do the later? Implement it through the leading Bourses. You cannot raise capital on NYSE, LSE, NASDAQ, .. etc unless you abide by ethical standards. i.e. pay>US$1/hour Capitalism works really well so let's just make it ethical.
Water too must be taken into account. Acquifers are being pumped dry around the world. We are exporting virtual water, as well as energy, with the production of food.
In the final analysis, I think it all boils to this: We have become greedy & stupid. Greedy people get greedy government and polices. A century back, our society was largely "needs based". It was carefully manipulated to become a "desires based" society. Anyone who has seen "A Century of Self" documentary made by BBC's Adam Curtis would agree.
"It's not just the calories"
People need vitamins, minerals, fiber, you name it too. However, it may take 18 kilos of grain for a kilo of beef, or 8 kilos of grain for a kilo of pork, or 4 kilos of grain for a kilo of turkey, ... why don't we just eat the grain. Problem with that is people evolved 5 million years as hunter gatherers: vegetables, roots, fruits, nuts, lean game when they could catch it. Result: we don't make Vitamin C or folate, that's from the veggies, we need B vitamins from the game. Looking at the dentition they didn't grind grain with their teeth - grain came up very recently, 10,000 years ago or so, along with diabetes, obesity, and overpopulation.....oh, by the way, no dairy either.
"Biological systems know all about thermodynamics." Obviously the biological system that wrote this article didn't!
As the cheap energy runs out, people here will go from being able to afford mangoes shipped from thousands of miles away to being unable to afford a turnip grown just up the road. Dr Baker is absolutely right about the urgent need to start thinking about food in terms of energy returned on energy invested (EROEI). In fact, we need to start thinking about *everything* in those terms while there is still time to develop alternatives to a system where everything relies on fossil energy.
Very few people understand how close we are to a terminal decline in global oil output (which will hasten the depletion of gas, which is the primary substitute). As fossil energy diminishes - almost certainly faster than renewables can be ramped up - it won't be just those who are currently poor who face starvation or death.
In a truly "free market" economy, the thesis makes no sense. Energy is part of the cost of production; therefore, energy expended in fertilizer production, transport, packaging, display, preservation, advertisement, etc. all go into the cost of the food produced. If locally produced goods are produced using less energy and hence at lower cost inputs, then they will compete and WIN, discouraging wasteful production.
The problem is that we are not in a truly free market economy; it is distorted by such things as subsidies, protectionist policies, and food "aid". CARE is perhaps right to reject imported wheat from the USA, but only if it has an alternative solution. In fact, it makes more sense to subsidise African production for African food aid, as that is more efficient. But there's a catch: you can't wait a growing season or more (after all it takes time to ramp these things up) to deliver food aid; the need is immediate and critical. But it does make the case for long-term investment in local production to head off famine more efficiently.
Regrettably, with both US and European agricultural production distorted by subsidies and supported by powerful agricultural lobbies, all the while wasting taxpayer money, intelligent policy will take back seat to politicians' need to get elected and re-elected.
In sum: truly free markets would account for and regulate the energy that goes into production, but they do not exist--and will not exist until we develop the political will to make it so.
The article definitely provides a large amount of food for thought, although I don't understand the point on some of its arguments. Having lived in the U.S for many years, it was always a surprise to see Bananas from Costa Rica being sold for 30 cents a pound, or California grown Lettuce or Strawberries going for so cheap in Michigan. Having moved a lot, I used the Banana cartons occasionally as they are quite sturdy, and were in my opinion as valuable as the Bananas they contained. In the case of Californian products, obviously having access to cheap foreign labor was a key factor there.
I don't agree with completely going local either. Having some local products is fine, but you can't force it. Wouldn't it be boring to only consume local? What's wrong with having a Banana here in the UK?
At the end of the article Dr. Baker poses questions to be answered before public funds are being spent on agriculture. I believe this is exactly the root source of all the problems he talks about earlier. If there were no public funds being spent on agricultural products, and there were no government intervention in the economy, then every country and every region would adjust to what they can produce best, and the disorder Dr. Baker is trying to talk about would give its place to order and sustainable production.
Thermodynamic Energy and Entropy (which Baker confuses in the article) are not the same as Power and Money. For example, in physics Energy is conserved. In economics Power is generated and spent. Power has an average cost, and a marginal cost"
"what am I missing here? Being a Physics graduate student, I don't understand how you can create more output energy than the input energy."
These are two absolutely fundamental points -which seriously question the very nature of economic thinking. "Energy" and "Money" are two completely different (unrelated) concepts. They appear to be linked via the "energy market" -but this is an arbitrary relationship becuase the values of the currencies involved have no objective value. If calculations are made on the basis of "energy use" (joules, calories, etc) the outcomes are presumably constant for all identical calculataons because the variables remain unchanged -while any calculations based on the "monetory value" (dollar,euro, etc.) of energy will vary (minute to minute) with the market price. So underlying the problem is the conceptual relationship between "economics" (which might basically be concerned with the outcome of wealth, or energy, flows) and "accounting" (which is basically concened with the nature and relationships of the varianbles within the various equations used to calculate the outcomes).
Presumably, it is bad "accounting" that causes us to believe in "cheap" food -when the real (social-economic) costs are extremely high (probably, for all of us).
However, this still leaves us with the problem of what exactly "economics" deals with: Most economists seem to believe that economics is concerned with the generation of "wealth" -but cannot really define what exactly "wealth is (except in subjective terms based on the concept of "money", which has an arbitrary value).
So how does"wealth" relate to "energy"? If wealth is directly related to energy then presumably it connot be increased or reduced but only conserved. Then economies can only distribute and not create wealth -unless the laws on thermodynamics are themselves not properly understood, or have limited application. However, if "wealth" is a purely monetory concept -then because money (after being removed from the gold standard) has no real value outside the currency market, "wealth" is surely an illusion kept only alive by the currency traders.
Somebody once told me that in Communist Europe, the problem was not a lack of money -but a lack of goods to buy. This is surely the bottom line: Ultimately, one cannot eat money: One always has to exchange the money (if one has it) for the essential products one needs to survive -which also have to be available. Bizarrely, it is the unavailability of these products that increases the price and decreases the value of the money that might have been used to buy the products -had they been more available. So the best way to become rich for essentail commodity holders is not to produce more -but to reduce the supply well below levels of demand. This increases "wealth" for a few-but drives the rest into poverty.
So perhaps the real problem is that postmoderist socio-economic theories have persuaded us that conceptual money is the same as physical goods. As a result, the (post)modern Marie Antoinettes all cry "Let them eat Simulacra!". So no wonder we are all dying of intellectual and physical malnutrition.
It is complicated by all these subsidies, direct and indirect (transportation infrastructure) and the most complex subsidy, Mother Earth. Without these, we would get a better idea of the true cost of foods. The local apples will look a much better deal than those Florida oranges.
But we see what happens at the WTO when we confront big business (aka government) with removing these subsidies.
First I want to say good morning and I say that because it is and it's essential to this discussion. Too often people lose hope. Too often people think how increasing entropy in a closed system is upon us and it can't be overcome. It's counterproductive and just not true to think this and I want to thank the author for not taking a defeatist attitude. Seeing things like that almost makes it so. If I remember correctly the second principle of thermodynamics only holds in a closed a system but I submit there is a powerful new force that keeps it from truly being a closed system. The collective voice of millions of people and their ability to communicate in ways not even imaginable not long ago. As long as that remains open there is hope. Modern communications and the increasing willingness of people to work together to solve things brings a huge new force to bear. By taking stock of what's happening to the planet and ourselves as well we essentially give voice on this planet to all the living things that together try to hold back physical principles long enough for life to continue let alone advance. The increasingly complex matrix of life on this planet that has stood so valiantly all this while against what is now called the second principle of thermodynamics now has voice. The power of communications in getting people to work together is huge. As long as people have a shared willingness to ask for help when they need it even from wisdom of other generations and nature itself and don't go off half cocked on a road to war there is hope to find answers to the pressing issues that are truly upon us. So on this day, a day when Russia says it's going to stop fighting and games are going on in Asia, those things that have protected the common good for so many ages stand a good chance of being protected and surviving. As far as food is concerned I'd say people need nutrition to be able to think straight and the value of getting what's needed where it's needed can't be measured in calories.
Some of this article makes sense. It would be great to produce locally and suply locally. A leading country in this area is Cuba. Having had to put up with an embargo for so long they've had to become more or less self sufficient. As a result everyone's turned to producing food on large and small scales, in urban as well as rural areas. But we have to be realistic, we can't be 100% self sufficient but we can at least try to reduce the amount of food imported.
It is probably much wiser to stick to discussions centred on the application of the First Law of TD, although it must be said that is precisely here that economic gurus seem to falter, so its clearly a challenge.
Going deeper too soon, carries the risk, apparent in financial circles at the moment, of using higher layers of elucidation as a smoke screen to hide the almost obvious.
There are simply too many people chasing too few resources - this looks set spiral in line with global population.
In 50 years we will all starve so lets not get carried away with using science and aid to artificially enhance the problem at the expense of all our childrens future.
Population control is the key to sustainability.
There is a solution to this complexity: a carbon or energy tax collected at point of first use. Then the economic systems we have developed will work to help us to a solution. Instead of having to worry about whether that paper bag or coffee is higher or lower CO2 than the alternative, the price will tell us. The accountants will help us "go green".
The challenge is how to get it to happen. In an ideal world, it would be a uniform global tax. But we don't live there. So the practical route is for Europe to impose the tax - and CO2 based tariff barriers*. Otherwise, we'll just send the manufactuing to China, along with the CO2 production.
Big problem for politicians is that such a tax has a disproportionate impact on the disposable income of the poor. But that's reasonably simple to fix - raise the income tax thresholds so that more poor folk are low tax, cut VAT a bit and increase basic state pension & unemployment benefit a bit and it would be fair.
*If we offered to "match EU tax" on anyone who was to CO2 audit their imports to the EU or came from a country with a similar CO2 tax, this could be WTO compliant as it aims to create a level playing field rather than "favour the locals"
"Surely at some point, let's say between $50 and $500 per barrel of oil, it no longer makes any sense to simultaneously export and import food high in embodied energy.
But we simply lack the user-friendly models and metrics that decision-makers need to calculate such figures and project them into the future."
No we don't: it's called money. When transport costs get too high, there will be financial incentive to produce more locally - as Dr Baker has just said himself!
If you want policy, you can preemptively incentivise local consumption by imposing huge import tariffs. I expect developing world farmers would react very positively to that.
At the end of the day the rich are getting richer, our caviar costs more, but then we can afford it as we drive to the supermarket in our nifty biofueled energy efficient vehicle, to restock our highly disposable 5 star fridge.
The issue is treated with an open mind, using questions rather than definite statements. The approach to the problem is scientific.
Under present economic "laws" such issues cannot be solved and the market only works short term. The second law is usually ignored by economists. Georgescu Roegen is not very popular with the Chicago Boys. Let hope more people start thinking like Dr. Baker We have not much time left to propose a systemic economic model adapted to our small planet. Reality doesn't give rewards or punishments, only consequences.
Peter Baker makes a number of interesting points. He suggests that producing food for consumption locally will reduce energy wastage by cutting the use of oil, etc for transport. This seems eminently reasonable. One might add that local production might be better targeted to local needs and thus less food wastage from damage and rotting. He also recognises that the agribusiness operates in a very complex environment that is poorly understood and that different groups of people within that environment have many different, often conflicting, interests.
However, his suggestion that we should measure the effectiveness of the food chain by the foods energy content as a proportion of the energy needed to produce and deliver it to the consumer is very questionable. Who drinks coffee for its calorific content? Surely it is for the flavour and its stimulant effect. And likewise tomatoes which also provide essential vitamins, minerals, etc.
Equally Peter Baker's invocation of the laws of thermodynamics appears misplaced. Yes of course it applies; they cannot be avoided. Without energy input everything will degenerate into chaos. But there is an input from the sun which can 'sustain' something we might regard as 'order' on earth. It begs two questions: What order do we want? And, how should we maintain it?
History suggests that civilisations rise and fall. Small local groups of people develop modes of survival for a time, then fade away. Darwin's law of survival of the fittest applies to groups of people too though the issue is complicated by the interaction and competition between such groups.
Local production for local consumption might contribute to survival and reduce energy consumption in the world. It might contribute to reducing greenhouse gasses and consequent global warming. But in a world populated by competing politicians, economists, large business organisations and a discourse set on globalisation it is not going to happen.
This article promised to be good. I stopped reading when I got to "the Universe is inexorably heading to increased randomness and disorder". Only one question Dr Baker - how could you ever know?
A very confused article. There may be an interesting argument in there somewhere, although not one I fully agree with.
Of course firms take energy and transport costs into account. If, in a free market, production and trade occur it means there are private, and usually social gains to be had. As pointed out, this may not be the case if governments heavily distort markets, by subsidizing fuel for example - and I do not advocate such a policy. But removing trade barriers is not an example of distorting market forces, just of allowing them to operate fully. And investment in roads and infrastructure is inadequate in almost all developing countries, anything that improves this situation will be a positive step.
It is likely that traditionally energy scarce societies will have developed more energy efficient agricultural sectors, as the example of Tanzanian cassava would seem to suggest. This makes the potential gains from trade, as measured by the author's criteria, even greater.
The author's main point seems to be that economic rationale does not take proper account of the longer term picture particularly regarding the use of energy, and that governments and donors need to intervene to correct this. Why free markets are efficient in the short run but flawed in long run is not explored. More importantly, the cost of energy is just one of many constraints that farmers and food exporters operate under, and not the single most important - at the optimum this constraint is not necessarily binding. Even if it were possible, forcing private agents to minimize energy use for a given level of output will not necessarily lead to the socially optimum outcome. Of course governments should intervene where markets fail. One failure of the free market is that it does not take into account the social costs of fossil fuels - such as pollution and global warming. This means these sources of energy should be taxed. If the tax is set at the right level, private firms should be allowed to maximise their profits - what private firms do best - in this higher energy cost environment.
Over much of the last two centuries western entrepreneurs have been operating in an energy abundant environment. This era may come to an end eventually, and the energy constraint begin to bind although this looks to be some way off - there is still plenty of oil left. Around 200 years ago the basis of economic activity began to shift from solar, water and wind energy to fossil fuels. We may be in the early stages of a similar paradigm shift today. Science has already found the solution to a potential economic problem. The similarly slow take up of coal powered steam engines two centuries ago and nuclear power today is striking.
the market works because it all will seek the lowest input costs and sell at the highest possible market price. by factoring in calories/ energy expenditure amounts, will only lead to more government 'for the good of the people' interference of the natural flow of the market. Does anyone remember the food control place upon Britain in ww2 until the fifties. or the soviet and chinese versions of socialism inspired food control. It was a disaster and led to less food produced the market wanted and more of what the state wanted. The subsidy to support unwise operations and dreams, etc. trust me the if some sort of control issue forth to do the green work of the lord (so to speak), government and it power hungry minions will usurp it for their own and never willing give it back. A good example is the Canadian Wheat Board or the Dairy council in Eastern Canada, where once setup not even the elected government of the day with the mandate from the people, can change their mandate or close them down . The special interest groups see to that it not only protected, but expanded and further enriched. I could on and point US subsidies to it's own farmers, etc.
The road to hell is paved with GOOD intentions! And is a good intention we should ran away from.
No, I don't support the above ivory tower call to arms to save the world from ourselves. A good is only worth what two people agree to exchange it at each based on each own needs and wants.
Lastly, after working in Africa, grain is seen as luxury good with good status images attached to it for the local. Cassava is the have not and lower status local. White crusty french loaves are for the elite. So change the image of better for the world products and you will solve more problems than you will create with 'calories ratio controls' and other government acts.
But then that is - using the biology analogy - usually the way; once you have figured out what is going on; even the most complex issue is elegantly simply.
I entirely agree with Peter Bakers request that we "think locally" - that is after all where "we" are; we have never been this far away from the stuff we need to survive; besides our food, our medicine, our knowledge, even our values often come from "miles away"
Having our stuff presently so far away; over the sea, over the internet; miles away over the Telivision - it makes us extremely vulnerable - we no longer know how stuff works, and if the technology in between runs out of fuel; we are stuffed - that is why we are in a very vulnerable time; we have never been this far away from the basics of survival at any time in our human past. Be aware of that vulnerablity.
We have forgotten how ecosystems work; we live in a semi-detached in a city - but we still go off and smash up an ecosystem 9,000 miles away - because we export our "forgotton the knowledge" behaviour round the globe.
The problems are elegantly simple; I can explain it all in 5 seconds with a bar graph of kiddies shoes through the ages; I can explain it all with an abandoned car, over grown with a huge bramble bush at the end of a garden.
The problem is elegantly simple; it's "us"
We have had 300 brief - very brief years of running amok; "more more more" - we've been drunk, had a wild night; bust a few things; now we have the hang over; the question is; are we going to learn our lesson and say "never again" or are we going to drink our selves to death.
The problem - and the solution, if we want it; is elegantly simple; we need to think, and the first question is "what do we want the human race to be and do" . . . over to you 6 billion people.
It doesn't make sense to me that England is exporting home grown sugar to other parts of the world and importing "fairtrade" sugar. Surely it would be better to use the local sugar beat grown in the fenlands of England rather than sugar cane from Malawi?
There is definitely a good point in paying local growers to produce food for local markets. Taking produce the equivalent of three times round the country, or the world, is plain ridiculous & should be discouraged.
Besides which, nothing can beat the flavour of home grown veg & fruit. It's the only way to grow runner beans.
On a more serious note, it makes a lot of sense for countries in the Developing World to grow food for their own populations rather than for export & then have to import food Aid. As well as being better for the world in general.
This article certainly goes beyond the food cost/mile or the pollution by export/mile. Is there any chance Peter Baker can have a little stay at UC Berkeley? give a little speech perhaps. The topic will certainly attract a large audience since Berkeley is a very "gree" and eco-conscious local.
Cutting through the convoluted language the message seems to be this: if we allow energy prices to be forced sufficiently high the world food supply system will fail and we will have to go back to the local production like we had in the middle ages.
Firstly I would question the envirosocialist assumption that this is a good thing. The last famine in England was in the late 1600s - personally I don't want to go back to a system where heavy rain one summer means I starve.
Secondly I would question the assumption that energy costs must inevitably rise. If we are willing to challenge the envirosocialists then we are quite capable of developing new sources of oil, biofuels, hydrogen, nuclear power etc. etc. It is only the politics of people who WANT to take us back to the middle ages which is stopping this at the moment.
An excellent article overall! Although I disagree with the analogy to the second law of thermodynamics, the article articulates well the inefficiencies of a colonial mindset to providing aid.
I don't think we should be allowed to legally buy New Zealand lamb when we have British meat so readily available, and I don't think I've ever noticed a difference in taste. Same with buying water in bottles from France or Fiji - it doesn't make any sense to me.
Sick of seing farmers/producers throwing away on motorways their products which don't sell, sick of seing the "Distribution" dictating its law to suppliers and killing small businesses hence decreasing the variety of products available, sick to see non reusable seeds on the market, sick to see that the need for humanitarian aid has become permanent in some countries and is overall growing constantly, sick to see the appropriate responses are not there... Yes to an increased awareness of actual cost and actual value of nutritional resources, and YES to clean and ethical trade, including to more control or constraints if necessary... Relate this to the increasing cost of food basket for vegetarian families (french survey), to the energy invested in biofuels, in surplus meat production. Nothing much will happen unless there are will and means to regulate the food chain across nations. How much can this be isolated from developmental issues in emerging countries (or should we sa!
y sinking ?)Unfortunately the power of lobbies is unbalanced, but I hope a "clean/green" thinking will be empowered.
I heartily disagree. You cannot compare apples to oranges or a t-shirt for that matter. If one was to buy into this argument, then any NON food item produced in the world that is not designed to produce at least some kind/amount of energy, is a complete waste of the energy used to produce it. Give me a break! I suppose he would have us all starve since eating grass would be a no no probably since one can imagine the waste of all that sun that grew the grass.Get real!
The value of this article is hugely reduced by Dr Baker's reference to the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. Far too many people think they understand what "disorder" in the thermodynamics sense means. Please rewrite after doing some research and proper thinking.
As long as we want to eat out of season foods and those not available locally (indigenous) we will continue to eat irrationally.
The "salary - calorie" link should not be dismissed either. Eating "richer" doesn't always mean eating better.
In the major food exporting countries, the entire process is heavily subsidized throughout the entire process, whether it is agricultural subsidies or tax loopholes for the oil companies. When Burger King charges one dollar for a double cheeseburger, the real price is much, much higher. When huge subsidies are given to agri-business, that cost is hidden. You have already paid for the thing before you even see it, via taxes which are diverted for subsidies.
Another tragedy is how food aid is apportioned to the starving nations. American aid policy works like this: Say 100 million dollars in aid is granted to Somalia. We don't just hand over the cash, we deposit it in an American bank, and we require the aid recipients to spend the money here in the US. What this really is is another subsidy for American farmers. Instead of taking that money and spreading it around where it will do the most good, building infrastructure and creating wealth, it simply goes back to where it came from, the American taxpayer. So instead of actually helping Somalia, we are just making a few bucks off of them. A bushel of wheat produced locally benefits everyone involved, whereas a bushel of wheat transported 10,000 miles only has benefits for the sellers, and only drives up the price.
Remember the story of a young African woman whose family was able to send her to an American university because a private aid group gave her family a goat. They were able to turn that goat into more goats, sell the milk, and as if by magic, a family business is born. That is how food aid should work.
Unfortunately, this is a problem that can not be solved with the current system in place. To solve this problem would mean abolishing ALL agricultural and energy subsidies in the developed world. Here in the US, the multi-national food corporations and the oil companies have a stranglehold on the electoral process, through the corrupt campaign finance system. As recent history clearly shows.
I work in an upscale grocery store that mouths hippie platitudes about sustainability, environmental concerns, workers rights, animal welfare, etc. One of our key corporate values claims to be "buy local". And yet we sell a huge number of products from overseas. The organic frozen spinach from China is a good example. How sustainable is that? Or eggs from New Zealand? I know we have chicken farms here in the US. My personal favorite item is the oranges from Australia. Don't we grow oranges in California?
I wonder about the environmental cost of these things. I think more people would question the status quo if they were better informed and had a government that represents the people, and not just big business.
It really makes no sense to carry food over long distances, when perfectly sound production opportunities exist at the destination. While food remains the most important basis for life, there is no need to consume South African grapes in the UK, Californian wine in Germany or Finnish strawberries in Singapore.
Higher energy prices increase costs for transport and fertilisers. This in turn promotes local agriculture and ecological farming.
The benefits are not only in energy savings and local economics, but also in global security as supply dependencies are reduced.
All of these metrics are based on oil prices and/or electricity production costs. Once more renewable energy sources are in the supply chain and new fuel cell technology in automotive vehicles is employed these figures look very different. Our dependence on harmful fossil fuels is still the root of these economic and agricultural problems.
Our current system only makes sense in a world of cheap, readily accessible oil and for which both are becoming steadily less true as time goes on.
Since oil has a high calorific value itself, it enables all these lengthy journeys for our foods. Without it, there exists no alternative save for sailing ships to transport across the globe.
"But we simply lack the user-friendly models and metrics that decision-makers need to calculate such figures and project them into the future."
Just introduce a complex currency. The real part is what you as "buyer" pay directly now. The imaginary part is the prediction by the "seller" of expected inflation/deflation. Products using many endangered natural resources (atoms) should be given a large negative imaginary value, products relying on intelligence (bits) should be given a large positive imaginary value.
It should then be up to national and international political decision makers to define a current i-value of commodities like oil.
I can recommend that Peter Baker continues to study the second law of thermodynamics, which is probably the least understood of all physics laws.
It is the prime duty of the country to provide food , cloth and shelter to the people. As such, the price of food and cloth should match with the purchasing power of the people. Even if the cost of production and distribution of the food system is high, the government should bear the difference amount of the cost of the production and the price his people could afford.
Only after that comes, cloth, and other necessities like transportation etc.
I think it would be wiser to look at the whole picture, rather than study each product on its own (e.g. the example with the tomatoes) and make sure that the price/energy balance is there. It's probably right to make sure this balance is there for a country or region's OVERALL agrobusiness. Even the most successful enterprises often have 'loss-makers' in their product or service range. They are offset by the winners, but their contribution is to provide a comprehensive range, which is a selling point and will ultimately increase business and profitability.
Most certainly a more realistic view of the relative prices of foodstuffs in terms of the cost of inputs per calorie produced should be considered by trade policy makers. Cheaper and cheaper coffee,tea,and cocoa for example are enjoyed in the developed world at the cost of local food production in the countries where they are grown.It is time to reconfigure global trade and a good starting point could be to stop trading food,i.e. corn,wheat,soy,etc. on the commodities exchange in Chicago.
Bravo. Dr Baker cuts through a lot of the emotional pleading with his logical approach. Let us have free trade in food and stop the destructive forms of aid/subsidies/protection that distort markets and penalise efficient long term production.
We produce food for reasons that have nothing to do with energy yet it would be sensible to allow prices in the markets to reflect energy values. The most energy efficient food products may not be the most popular taste varieties.
Thank you for this vitally important message. For many decades, subsidised farmers in the developed world have undercut subsistence farmers in developing nations, putting them out of business and promoting food dependency. The true costs of energy are now emerging, and are forcing food exporting nations to adopt more realistic prices. Developing countries need to reinvigorate their agriculture quickly, or face deeper poverty and starvation. We are training our people to grow their own food (http://diepsloot.org), but it's a race against time. We need clear thinking on these issues, and your article is very insightful.
In India in the name of Special Economic Zone, the Govt. and Multi National Companies are buying fertile agricultural lands and convert them into satellite towns, Industries and thus polluting as well as reducing the existing food production. Presently in India most of our farmers are under debt because using vigoursly genetically modified seeds in cotton, wheat, rice etc., which not only failed the farmers also turned their fertile land into den.
Several years ago (on JuryFury) I published and article claiming that "energy" and not money should be the basis for economics. Also, for cultural reasons, we focus on a "dead" physics (with "animism" removed) -but "organic systems are anti-entropic. Inorganic systems decay but organic systems grow. So by thinking organically (and in terms of synegetic energy) we get an economy of pleanty insterad of the economy of scarscity used to bully us now.
Part of the problem is EU & USA. The USA particularly, for political reasons has to subsidise and support farmers. This causes overproduction and to prevent the local markets from getting flooded by really cheap product, they send food aid to third world countries which further destroys the agriculture there. This has been well documented in Ethiopia.
Another example was in the 70's India used to get wheat from the US in Aid. Indira Gandhi stopped the aid and a few years later the country was able to become self sufficient.
It strikes me that this guy is writing for an audience of peers - peers with whom he was discussing the very same subject about half an hour ago!
It would sit better in some obscure section of the Economist or Nature than behind a prominent link on the BBC website. Don't you have editors at the BBC anymore?
He makes far too many assumptions about what the audience knows.
I tried quite hard to follow him as it's a subject that I'm quite interested in.
But do I agree with him? I wouldn't know!
If you really want to engage people on this subject - try breaking it down into some mini articles. Put some pictures, diagrams, real life examples and supporting evidence.
The problem is we don't hear these words from government, the very place we should be hearing this from and lots more like it on every topic. Peter for PM!
Do you agree with Peter Baker?
Does our current system of food production and distribution make sense?
Not a lot. Being from an island, thousands of miles away from the Mainland US, we witness the pressure and impact of gasoline driven delivery firsthand.
What are the factors preventing reform?
Simple. It's not time for most of us to plant a garden. Although expensive, store bought produce/goods is very attractive to most of us because of our conditioning to it. However, when the time is right and food is scarce or much more highly priced, more gardens and growing facilities will flourish locally.
However, Should the price of food products reflect the energy involved in making them?
Absolutely. We run a small food business and understand what this question means in depth.
Most raw materials must be flown n from an average of 6000 miles away. (PA to HI).
Why not grow our own Garbanzo beans? Why not grow our own sesame seeds and grind to a butter?
these are great questions to be answered by someone who can fulfill the farmers end.
A tedious piece of gobbledegook. What is Dr Baker getting at?. Should now be the time that Big Brother starts handing out the Soylent Green, perhaps padded out with Cassava flour?.
It was a good example of why the science has trouble getting through. It was virtually unreadable. Rambling , all over the place.
Be concise, get to the point.
hi, actually i agree with the writer's perspectives,on the other hand i also think that it's understandable that the current system of producing and distributing food produce does incur a lot of energy wastage;since in the process of food production, food producers only consider the cost that actually involves in production and neglect the external cost and energy wastage that generated to the environment, for example air pollution,etc during the production process.and it is hard to ask them for compensation as there's no way to force them to internalise such external cost. in the sense of external cost, i think it will be much fairer to reflect the actual cost and energy of food produce in it's price tag since in this way excess production could be prevented and the issue of further energy wastage in food production could be dampened.
I agree. Here in Canada we buy fish caught in Canadian waters but processed in plants in China and then retailed back in Canada. This makes even less sense than importing most of our fruit and vegetables from far flung countries. Thousands are unemployed in Atlantic Canada and receiving benefits and retraining while the fish companies receive direct and indirect subsidies as a result. Can we trust the safety of processing in China where all corners are cut to save pennies?
Our family has stopped buying products like these which are over-processed anyway. But with other products such as fresh food how can we save money when costs are rising substantially due to transportation costs and increased shareholder payouts or competition from megastores like Walmart which competes with "unfair" practices like using the same size box as other stores but not filling it as much and hiding the content sizes?
Living in a city isolated from main centres and farms and in a country with a long cold winter makes it very difficult to grow our own food. If we followed the 100 mile diet about 80% of our food would disappear. Our produced in Canada energy is higher priced than in the US. Our best food is exported to Asia and Europe while we pay higher prices for subgrades. Basically, we are still a colony of the former (and still) colonial powers.
It is very hard to know what to do.
I am not up on the physics and biology of food growth and its energy expenditure. I think giving food or selling food to other countries on a non ending basis for the last 30 years is pointless. Continue feeding the people for now but give them the tools and equipment they need. teach them to farm and help them feed themselves. Give them the tools and teach them to build dwellings that will continue to stand. Give them the tools to build the fresh water wells and show them how to use them. Help them to stand as human beings and to stop forcing them to beg for food to just stay alive another day.
It makes little sense to carry food and drink products halfway round the world in all directions - such as oranges from Florida, apples from California, bananas from the Caribbean, kiwi fruit and tea from China, wine from South Africa, lamb from New Zealand, beef and coffee from Brazil. The list is enormous.
We live in a global market but it is global madness to spend billions of dollars on moving food and drink round the world, increasing green house gases, so that people can eat seasonal fruits out of season, drink Californian wine with their turkey at Christmas, and have a fruit salad containing fruits from 9 or 10 countries below the equator, while fields are left fallow in the EU to support farmers to grow weeds.
So what will impede reform? GREED. STUPIDITY. VESTED INTERESTS.
The latest mind numbing crass stupidity encouraged sanctioned and subsidised by various governments is biofuels, replacing food crops to grow crops to fill gas tanks, so the rich countries can drive 4x4's while the children of the poor die of starvation. Brilliant, really brilliant joined-up thinking.
The simple stark reality is that there are too many people on this planet consuming depleting resources, even the UK it guilty having a population twice its realistic self-sustaining level.
There are limits to growth - and we are reaching them quicker than ever.
I agree in principle with Peter Baker's final comments, but the example that he uses, of the efficiency of Tanzanian production of cassava, is not appropriate, IMHO.
It is a little too sensational to be helpful.
There are other comments I could make about that example, but suffice to say that his case is not helped by such examples.
Better by far, I believe, to provide references to fully documented cases and to let the interested readers further their own knowledge separately.
I agree that shipping food all over the globe is unsustainable and invites disaster during the next world oil shock. Heavy government subsidies to farmers in the USA and the EU have caused the current situation where their farmers are sending their cheap produce all over the world, undercutting African and Asian farmers. Japan also heavily subsidizes its farmers, but more to keep them alive (Japan's domestic food production is only 40% of food consumption). Buying locally produced food must become a priority. Hokkaido is one of Japan's most important agriculture areas, so this is not difficult for me. If cutting farm subsidies is political suicide, then at least use the subsidies to direct production toward biofuels. While the energy efficiency of biofuels is also hotly debated, at least Asian and African farmers will not be undercut and higher prices will encourage local food production.
I think his considerations make a lot of sence.
I hope his ideas get through to those who make decisions.
If growth, production, and distribution were based on natural growths by season and location; then, we would decrease all of the combined costs associated with transport but we would not have the varieties currently in the food rich countries. When the cost of transport gets too high, food cannot come in from other areas. We need to feed the whole world.
The costs of all economic activity, including agriculture have got to include the costs of externalities (the 'free' serevices provide by nature), ie the costs of countering (by sequestration or some other method) CO2 or cleaning polluted water supplies or protecting endangered marine environments from pollution and unsustainable fishing. A carbon tax is an essential first step with regard to CO2, as the market alone will react too slowly. Only when we price externalities into the costs of our consumption will the true market value be realised and the market will clear accordingly.
What an eye opening article. I've always enjoyed local produce because of the freshness and better flavor. Seeing the bigger picture of food production answers several questions I've had through the years. For instance, why in a country as fertile as Kenya do they need food from relief programs? Thanks for the education.
A movement toward local markets for most foods is the way toward basic sanity, globally. This would actually make it easier for a wider variety of foods to reach people in regions where abundance of food is short.
wake - up people, the ( sub ) humans of monetary, materialistic and consumptive society have to release their IRON GRIP in the world, there is no second place for the truth, without it there is no JUSTICE and without JUSTICE, life is not LIFE, only this unbearable round of destruction and chaos all chosen by man as a result of his actions, yawn, yawn, your higher self awakens to destroy your lower selves of sin.
I absolutely agree. It makes no sense for countries to export produce while they rely on food aid imports! Not only is this an environmental travesty, it also undermines local self-sufficiency and, obviously, long-term food security. Global security in all senses of the word depends on sustainable economic and environmental systems (which are in fact intimately intertwined). It is largely short-term political/economic gain by the few that skews our food sources--and markets--toward globalization. Especially as fossil fuels become scarcer and more expensive, we will all do better to appreciate and nurture the small producers nearby. Thank you for this interesting perspective on the subject.
Of course, Peter is right but the solution may be more tricky than paying farmers of Kenya or any third world countries higher price. The farmers of U.S will be up in arms as their subsidized wheat and corn will find no ready customers!
Instead Europe, U.S and FAO should train every year thousand farm scientists from third world countries in latest crop technology and the latest cost effective & relevant farming tools available world over.
THE ENERGY YOU WATSED IN WRITTNG YOUR ARTICLE, THAT SPEAKS IN TERMS, WAY OVER EVERYBODY'S HEAD IS NOT WORTH THE ENERGY TO READ; HOWEVER; IF WRITTEN SO THAT PEOPLE COULD UNDERSTAND YOUR IDEAS; YOU MIGHT HAVE A POINT!
This article is brilliant, and a way of looking at food imports and exports of which I would have never thought. It is a funny thought to import energy in the form of food, but it makes sense. Food is energy for people, yet we sit in the middle of an energy crisis. It is probably too simple to see food as equal to energy, but the thought has its merit.
This is a bit daft really. The value of food, or other crops for that matter, is not solely the energy stored in it; the cost of it is not solely the energy input to produce it; and the energy eventually stored is not a factor solely of some abstract human-produced energy input which could be expended equally anywhere.
Even then, the environmental cost of even the human-mediated part of the energy input (vs. solar energy input to crops, for example) depends very much on the circumstances and how the fuel or electricity is produced, so comparing energy input and content is likely to be at least as misleading as the 'food miles' concept.
There may be something here to consider, but the necessary economic parameters are confusing. "As an example, tomato production in the US consumes four times as many calories as the calorific value of the tomatoes created.... Casava production in Tanzania...where 23 times the calorific value is gained for each calorie of human energy input" seems nearly 100 times as human energy efficient. But perhaps the total energy of tomato production is only 10% of the value of the commodity versus perhaps 50% of the value of the Cassava if grown with Western type agriculture, versus 1% if grown by a subsistence farmer in Africa. I can't do the math, but it may be that it still is better for each to import from afar. More examples are needed to understand the problem.
Another factor may be the amount of water required. The irrigation in Africa may be far more (or less) available than in the west.
Another factor may be fertilizer. And so on.
I'd like to see something akin to paying for carbon pollution applied to agriculture. But we need to consider more than energy. We need also to consider other resources: land, water, sun, soil conservation, vitamin and mineral content of the product, tilling techniques (are bacteria and worms thriving, and do they help), and most likely many others that I am not aware of.
Who has a handle on this whole picture? It seems that we subsidize, encourage, and hype the products that we make money on, to the detriment of thinking of the whole system's needs.
It is an interesting concept and one we may have to do more to save energy.
Since when was capitalism meant to make any sense?
Our system is largely based on supply and demand, not prices fixed by government eggheads.
Communism tried to manage and organise everything in the food chain based on various assumptions, and eventually they couldn't even feed their own people on anything better than canned spam, cabbages and turnips.
Unable to even feed people properly, their system collapsed within a decade.
Food price inflation, when it arrives, again, will force change, again, like the last time during the 1970s.
Playing with the food supply chain, especially one that works, is playing a dangerous game.
Every country on the planet is about ten bellyfulls of food away from a revolution.
On being wasteful: Corporations inhale profits and exhale products at an ever accelerating pace. The sad thing about this is that we all jump on the Green bandwagon and say we want to do something about upward-leaping food prices, and all the CO2 being emitted into our nonrenewable atmosphere all the while driving in SUVs comparable in girth to the M1A2 Abrams, and throwing garbage out of our car windows on our way to work at Exxon Mobil's Corporate headquarters. As an American I genuinely hope to see the day when we stop acting like the arrogant kids on the block who think they own it and more like the fun yet responsible neighbors the next street over (in reference to our omnipresence in world affairs).
The article possibly inadvertently exposes some of the complexities in the argument about the growing and transport of food. In talking about the calorific value of tomatoes for example, it possibly misses an important point that we do not eat tomatoes for calories. We eat them for a whole range of other constituents such as vitamins etc which have a much higher value to the consumer than the simple calories themselves. The fact that the calories consumed are higher than the calorific value of the output is therefore irrelevant. Unless we can put all the attributes of tomatoes on a common basis, just looking at one element runs the risk of distorting the assessment of alternatives. As an economist, I would suggest that the value that the consumer attaches to the tomato, which takes into account all these factors may be the most useful measure of its worth. However this is not to say that distortions in input prices should not be recognised, but we need to be careful ab!
The cost of food already reflects the cost of growing it unless it is distorted by government subsidies. If I want fresh tomatos and I can afford them what do I care about the calorie value required to produce them? I'm eating them because they taste good. Mr. Baker's work is interesting but I hope it isn't used as an excuse to tack on more fees and tariffs in an attempt to "balance" the market for tomatos or coffee; consumers are quite capable of doing that on their own.
Why is there no mention of the huge waste of energy that is raising cattle? Rainforests are being turned into grassland and pasture to raise cattle or grow corn and soybeans to feed them. Soil nutrients are being depleted due to the high demand for corn causing farmers to plant the same crop over and over again. Then it all needs to get hauled to feed a cow that will produce, as unhealthy, fatty meat, a tiny fraction of the energy that was required to make it. Stop raising livestock (cows, pigs, kangaroos even?). Start hunting MODERATELY if you really don't think you can give up your steak. Feed more people. Live longer. Feel better.
Great article. Finally somebody who acknowledges the importance of the real Master of the Universe: the 2nd principle of thermodynamics. Everything ,from economics, to biology, to emotions, to obviously, information, should be read in this perspective.
Central to any conversation about the efficient use of resources in agriculture needs to be the topic of livestock. Not only does it take a significant amount of food and water to 'fatten' an animal, but their output in terms of food energy is minimal by comparison. Additionally, the land used for livestock could easily be put to use in growing more food and they collectively pose a bigger threat in regards to global warming than transportation does.
Its as well to invoke the 2nd law,however going a little further, individual corporations may be highly ordered and efficient,but the second law indicates this would create more disorder in the economic system as a whole.
The cost of meat is a factor that needs to be discussed. Using 10 times the wheat, 40 times the water of a vegaterian diet is not sustainable nor efficient. Asking people to pay the real costs of meat without subsidy would be a real start.
Along the same lines, I always wonder why politicians promote expensive mass transit for people to travel relatively long distances to works at low paying jobs, rather than promoting closer "work development" parks.
Great writing - keep it up!
Well, Cassava flour is lousy nutritionally.
And why do you show a poor Black farmer as an example of saving energy?
Why not show a middle class agribusiness farmer in Africa who is exporting fruit to Europe and enriching the entire region?
You forgot to calculate the time and energy spent by consumers in your shopping calculation. Living primitive sounds fine, but it translates to making women household drudges.
I raise chickens and corn on Cebu Island, Philippines. I also have a trucking business that hauls chicken food and corn to and from the mills. What I wonder about is the efficiency of the traditional farming methods, with reasonable amounts of both chicken manure and commercial fertilizer, using either water buffalo or small tractors for plowing, compared to the gigantic farming implements and massive fertilization in the US. Yields are good here, and it seems far more energy efficient than in the US. It has to be, to keep food affordable.
". . .the margins of impossibility. . ."
I don't know what the point about tomato calorific values is supposed to show, when they are a product eaten more for their vitamin and other nutrient contents and valued most for their contribution to low calorie diets. If the argument is about hidden environmental costs and the distorting effects of subsidies and taxes then it could be made more clearly. For the cost of energy to reflect the environmental costs (according to some mathematical model agreed by all governments) then presumably this would mean all energy would have to be taxed at the same rates worldwide before any trading was allowed. Otherwise a horrendously complicated tariff system would need to be set up to bring the embodied energy costs of each product to comparable levels, to allow fair trade to occur. Is Dr Baker proposing we should have a worldwide planned economy? That hasn't proved particularly successful in the past.
The subject of the world's human population is not being addressed adequately,relative to climate change. Nature in it's infinative wisdom controls numbers, of all life forms,( Other than human) by controlling the food supply. Yet huge efforts are put into increasing the food supply for humans to support an ever increasing human population. Not enough attention is being paid to solving the problem of our " Throw away society" and it's total impact on our environment. And what about the capitalist/profit motive, system itself? Without which little or nothing can be achieved.It's the antithisis of conservation and consumption control.We have to find another way of making things happen.
While this is certainly on the right track I think we should all know that counting calories is not the full story. There are many other factors to be considered. Some are the relative nutritional quality of foods and the overall health and environmental consequences of their production, storage, and distribution. I suggest everyone read the FAO report Livestock's Long Shadow for a broader perspective on the cosequences of livestock production in particular. You should be able to easily find the report online.
I think he's on to something. It explains why agri-business developed so many energy inefficiencies and paradoxes. Just understanding that it's been skewed by the availibility of essentially free (or cheap) energy is interesting. I'd like to here more about his metrics and his thoughts about where to go from here.
I used to work in the fruit-n-veg section of a big supermarket; in the warehouse there was a poster that read "For every calorie of fruit we sell, it takes 100 calories of jet fuel to bring it to the store" the upshot being, don't drop the fruit. This is probably far more shocking these days than it was when the poster was printed a few years ago - but Peter's point stands. Melons in December are not natural, nor a smart way to apportion limited energy resources. But I disagree with his tomato point : All large-scale food production costs more calories than you get by eating them. He could have pointed to beef, which has a ratio of more than 10:1 because you need several kilos of grass/corn to get a pound of meat. Casava may yield more than it consumes (ratio 1 : 23) but the fact that Kenya needs food support demonstrates how unreliable a source this is.
The reality is that the price of food already reflects the value of the energy contained - and energy is cheap. When something is cheap, we waste it - as it goes up, we'll be more careful.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. I can't find a more apt metaphor for this article. Has the author given thought to the possibility that the reason the locals export cassava flour and import wheat flour is because of preferences? Consumer tastes and preferences inform their spending choices, consumption choices, which in turn inform the demand and supply in local markets which determines the levels of imports, if any. One thing to be granted is that local markets are definitely distorted by subsidy aids to poor countries (It is economically more sound to give cash-vouchers for food) and to simultaneously subsidize farming in places like Japan, the EU and the US where crop production is generally more expensive than third world countries.
But apart from this, the existing systems and supply chains in the world reflect the direction of trade. If the cost of energy in transportation is increasing, then supply chains will take note of it and less will be demanded on the other side to compensate for more expensive transport. The agricultural economy is well suited to handle increases in costs and changes in demand. It is only undermined by government intervention in fixing floor prices and establishing trade controls.
I don't understand how evolution can be compatible with those same laws of thermodynamics which state that the universe heads towards disorder, and not order (our planet and our bodies).
Yes, it seems short termism has to be reformed from both ends of the political & financial (including the WB,IMF & other dev Banks)systems & the food supply chains. But this needs an abundance of good will, and a long term vision based on sustainability principles not the next 3 or 4 election term. the paradox of countries once self sufficient in local, diverse, resient food sources now due to WB prompting and bribery (inter-generational Debt actually) these nations are now tettering on social & political collapse due to reliance on imported food staples..ie the Philippines now has displaced a self suffiency in rice with an export crop, cotton, which is crippling farmers,due production costs equalling international prices.
It is best for health to consume foodstuffs grown locally anyway. Statistics show national health is degrading fast because of processed foods and imported foods, both of which are the result of the communications/transportations technologies, both of which consume a large percentage of the aggregate energy output of this planet. It's an extremely powerful wheel in fast motion that will require some powerful force(s) to redirect. Perhaps bumper stickers on cars would help make a start.
Would have liked to see a mention of the costs of producing meat products as well as vegetables, since the 'hidden' costs are so much greater.
Whether we agree with Peter Baker would seem to be largely irrelevant, since bandying opinions back and forth and trying to substantiate them irrationally would probably require the consumption of ego-driven energy - of a relatively high calorific value - rather than critical thinking - with arguably a lower calorific value.
Who is to say which opinion (his or ours) has the highest calorific value? Is not the giving of our opinions merely playing a zero-sum game, where the BBC is the winner, having tricked us into expending some portion of our cognitive surplus in recording our opinions?
In the end, is it not just a load of hot air?
Iain Barraclough, Auckland, New Zealand.
Food could be marked with some kind of "efficiency factor": a number which informs the buyer of the ratio of total calories used in producing and supplying a given product to how many it contains. In this way the public could make informed choices when shopping.
Why is it these environmentalists think of the worst possible metrics to gauge "fairness" and "compensation" by? More pollution credits for having *larger populations* (Kyoto Protocol)? So we encourage countries to have larger populations for more credits, irrespective of whether the citizens derive any "benefits" of that pollution? Now some scheme to reward exporters of foods with the highest caloric values? Shall we simply ship refined sugar as "food" across the planet now? Even better, how about pure oils and fat? This almost makes the worst fast-foods the most attractive export for country.
Chris C, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
I broadly agree with Dr Baker - as soon as I saw his reference to the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics I thought "Here's a Peak-Oil aware commentator". The groundwork laid by Howard Odum through eMergy (embodied energy) metrics is already there; but it will be distorted so long as we use a fiat currency approach to measuring value. While our economic system can create "value" out of thin air, our chances of applying an energy accounting across the economic realm are low.
I have been trying to find public domain materials related to the attempts by the Allende regime to establish a fusion between market demand and state supply through an early computer network. I am sure the now-delayed TEQs have been designed with such an aim in mind.
It's axiomatic, common sense; things are as they are; but greed and ignorance create consensus illusions; only the blind and the deaf are not aware of the destruction of a planet.
Comparing calories expended to calories produced is silly. Energy sources are not fungible (you can't eat petroleum), and different types of energy vary in price. Thus the cost of the energy inputs for that tomato may be offset by the price of the tomato, if tomato-calories are priced higher than fertilizer-calories. There need be no trick or subsidy to make that true: we just value tomatoes higher than we value the equivalent caloric amount of manure.
Climate change is coming - which is precisely why we need agribusiness in Africa. Subsistence farming, always a crapshoot, is becoming ever more tenuous as drought cycles worsen. The subsistence farmer doesn't have the resources to handle risk without starving, the capital to extract more food from his land, or the expertise to respond nimbly to environmental change. Big agribusiness companies - much as we hate them - prosper because they can do those things efficiently.
And let's stop romanticizing it: given the choice, subsistence farmers the world over eagerly switch to cash crops or move to cities for work. That's because money in the pocket is a much surer safeguard against famine than grain in the barn: money doesn't rot or flood or wither away; money lets you buy food from wherever it's cheapest.
One of two things will happen with climate change: either we all die, in which case our policy choices now hardly matter; or we don't all die, but some parts of the world become much nicer to live in than other parts of the world. Assuming the latter (since there's no point in planning for the former), we need to make it easier for people who get stuck in the bad parts to move to, and support themselves in, the good parts. That means more infrastructure, more urbanization, more and better markets where we can all exchange money for food.
This is one of the most intelligent opinion about energy consumption since "Without the hot air". Thank you for publishing this astounding piece of good sense instead of letting it rot in a drawer for a few years.
I agree with Peter Baker, but something that we no longer discuss is the carrying capacity of the land. I believe that we feel that it is no longer PC to talk about zero population growth, or being able to feed your children with local crops.
Mr. Baker didn't spell out where he was going with this concept, but I'm guessing the USA would be affected in a negative way, cause we be 'da bad guy.
Yes I wholly agree with Peter Baker. Knowing the true cost and energy that went into our food should be displayed for people to know how much corn goes into a hamburger, as well as all the antibiotics that are fed to the cows.
Peter Baker must be joking... academics and bureaucrats to decide on the 'most efficient' distribution patterns?
It's been shown many times where that leads... to famine. Read history.
'The Market' is not perfect, but it is many times better than any other method of allocating engery and effort, and producing food.
Dr Baker's article is very much commendable and indicates how intricated food as a commodity remains. As the auther has tried to highlight, agricultural hence food production systems vary a great deal with in and with out geographic as well as cultural entieties. That makes it difficult to creat a universal model to fit one and all. However from the global food production point of view one could hypothesise that each production system is a sub-set of the union sharing some if not all the phenomena that interact to the food-commodity value. The value attributed to food and its sustainability issues so far tend to rely on the interest and the field of concerned individuals, organisations and/or country policies. Lack of comprehensive approach to analise food production systems is one of the major drowbacks in devising meaningful long term solutions to the problems. A multidesiplinary approach to understand what the problem is and equally importantly genuine and open minde!
dness to appreciation and intiate participation of the indeginous knowledge base might be helpful. Mega-programmes designed top-down for poverty reduction by increasing food production are usually very expensive both financially and environmentally with near to insignificant returns as was attests with the green revolution in many developing countries. Most of all we need many more Bakers who I beleieve transcend the tradition of most senior academics' who provide us with prescriptive remedies. Perhaps the international politics, overt and covert policies that affect shifting of any sort of commodity in the world maket does not make the issue as simple and straight forward as it should have been. Well done Dr Baker I hope your contribution to environmental litracy would be appreciated by many.
"the calorific value of US wheat is only twice the amount of calories expended to produce it"
what am I missing here? Being a Physics graduate student, I don't understand how you can create more output energy than the input energy.
the other statement "As an example, tomato production in the US consumes four times as many calories as the calorific value of the tomatoes created. " is valid at least from the point of view of Physics.
It seems to me that the use of Physics is only a distraction from the real subject of the article.
I speak as a professional environmental scientist, and previous author of a Green Room article. This artlcle is incredibly boring, disorganised, badly written, and unclear in its message. Assuming it is saying the energy balance of food is wrong, that's an okay point, but it's not actually very relevant: we cannot eat oil, or sunlight, or any other form of energy.
Can you offer a clearer definition of what you are aiming for? By your argument, you seem to be suggesting that massive farms, 'efficient' by an 'energetic' (pretentious concept) yardstick are the answer?
If this is the environmental message - vague, pro-agribusiness, mealy-mouthed - we're in trouble.
You would do better to use common sense than bad Physics analogies.
Physics makes a bad analogy for Economics. Thermodynamic Energy and Entropy (which Baker confuses in the article) are not the same as Power and Money. For example, in physics Energy is conserved. In economics Power is generated and spent. Power has an average cost, and a marginal cost. Some forms of power are cheaper, some are ephemeral, most are non-transportable, etc.
Also, beware of unnamed "studies" claiming to measure the "energy" in crops. Are they counting the sunlight used by the plants? Should they? Are they counting the "energy" in the fertilizer? Is the producer using compost or guano or Ammonium Nitrate? Did they count transport costs as energy? How do they know that?
So tomatoes use 4x the energy as their calories, eh? So what? I can't eat "enery". How does that 4x value compare to cheese or beef? Who is being quoted? Without anything to compare it to, and not knowing how they arrived at it, that number is useless and misleading.
Economics is more complex than Physics. Because of its simplicity, physicists can create equations and measurements of great accuracy. Economists cannot borrow the esteem and accuracy of Physics to justify any conclusions of Economics.
The image of aid trucks passing export trucks is brilliant. Any animal that expends more energy to get its food than it receives will inevitably die. What humans have to their advantage is cheap oil. We eat it, wear it, live in it and ride it. The days of cheap energy are dwindling, and we will be pushed back into Thermodynamic realities. We may as well be prepared.
This is an incredibly well-written and researched article. I commend Dr. Baker.
How succinctly stated and eloquently phrased. Bravo Dr, Baker - I just hope there are some people in positions of power (especially in the developing countries) following your arguments?
after i read this i feel i have made a lot of mistakes.i feel that what peter baker said was right.
The argument, as I am reading it, makes sense. It just sounds silly, to be sending food to a country that is exporting food out of it. The Green Revolution has forced countries into a system that does not make any sense. Feeding one's country a variety of goods will save on energy costs, rather than producing one crop, which is then exported, and the money used to purchase food from another country. The system is flawed, and something needs to be done to fix it. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-39225804/yayoi-kusama-visions-of-polka-dot-infinity | Banksy hotel opens in Bethlehem Jump to media player It has the "worst view in the world", the artist says, as it is next to Israel's controversial wall.
A record breaking space suit Jump to media player The space suit Alan Eustace used in his record-breaking jump from more than 135,000ft is now on display in Virginia.
Art goes 'pop' at the British Museum Jump to media player One of the UK's first major exhibitions charting US Pop Art opens at the British Museum in London.
Have you ever wondered what infinity might look like?
The 87-year-old Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama has captured something close at an exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC.
It's become one of the art events of the year with long lines to glimpse inside her "infinity rooms".
But while the exhibit has been a Instagram-ready hit, the curator is telling visitors to put their phones away to fully experience the rooms - at least for a little while.
Jane O'Brien went to see what all the fuss is about.
Edited by Bill McKenna. Filmed by Ian Druce. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3122633.stm | People are being warned to be on the lookout for a Windows e-mail virus which pretends to be a message from computer support staff.
The worm, dubbed Mimail, first struck on Friday in the US but it has enjoyed a resurgence with people returning to work after the weekend.
Anti-virus firm Sophos said it had noticed a big increase in infections, suggesting that employees had gone to work and opened the e-mail worm, causing it to spread to all their contacts.
"The Mimail worm is getting a second lease of life as UK businesses log on to start a new working week," said Graham Cluley, Sophos senior technology consultant.
"While US firms have been patching their systems against this threat, their UK counterparts have been enjoying a sunny weekend, blissfully unaware that a virus is sitting on their e-mail system just waiting to be unleashed."
The Mimail worm arrives in an e-mail claiming to be from the company's computer support department.
The message says that your e-mail account will soon expire and urges you to read the attached information.
The attachment, called message.zip, contains an html file which is a copy of the worm. When opened, it searches the computer's hard drive for e-mail addresses for its next round of victims.
The worm takes advantage of a vulnerability in Microsoft's Internet Explorer and could potentially clog mail servers or slow down networks.
"Mimail's author has gone to great lengths to disguise his code as a legitimate e-mail," said Mr Cluley.
"However Mimail's text does leave a vital clue that it is a rogue e-mail - business e-mail accounts don't expire.
"Users need to think carefully before they launch any attachment, even if it does appear to come from a bona fide e-mail address."
Virus writers are always on the lookout for ways to trip up unsuspecting computer users.
In the past they have disguised worms as a messages from Microsoft support and used celebrities such as Avril Lavigne and Anna Kournikova. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-45433747 | Image caption The fire station has been thanking members of the public for their donations.
A fire station which gave away its knitted mascot to a distressed child has had hundreds of firefighting teddy bears donated.
Firefighter Richard Scarth posted on Facebook asking for a replacement after his team gave their bear to a boy hurt in a bus crash in July.
Whitchurch Fire Station in Hampshire has now been inundated with more than 100 cuddly toys.
Mr Scarth said he and his colleagues were "overwhelmed" by the response.
He said firefighters keep a toy with the engine to "calm or comfort children at incidents".
"We attended a crash where the child went to hospital with their mum and took the toy with them," he said.
"I just put the post on Facebook as a throwaway comment and we were completely overwhelmed by the kindness and support from the public."
The crew manager's post has been shared more than 4,000 times with more than 900 comments or offers of help.
Mr Scarth said any more bears would now be passed on to other fire stations. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-41543086 | A Grade-ll* church which was badly damaged by fire last year is to be sold.
St Michael on the Mount Without, in Bristol, had been boarded up since 1999 when it closed due to dwindling congregations.
Much of the roof was destroyed in the blaze which was started deliberately; the building was already on Historic England's At Risk register.
The Diocese of Bristol said it had a "wide open mind" over its future use.
Canon Peter Robottom said other former churches in the city had been used for arts purposes and a circus school, after congregations had moved out.
But he did not rule out it reopening in the future as a place of worship, as more people were moving back into the centre of the city. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3936267.stm | BBC NEWS | UK | UK Election 2005 | From May to November?
The political parties, commentators, most MPs, staff in the House of Commons and me - all have 5 May 2005 entered into their PDAs as election day.
It is not, needless to say, because we have any inside information.
Even if Tony Blair has made up his mind, he is keeping it very close to his chest.
It just seems to make sense.
He will have done his four years, which has become the near-traditional time to go to the country - so no accusations of cut and run.
With a bit of luck, a newly-democratic Iraq will have faded entirely from the TV screens, and Britain will be ready to "lead the world" by taking over the chairs of the G8 and the EU.
Delivery on the public services may even be being felt across the nation and, who knows, even the trains might be running on time - actually, just running would do.
It may even be sunny and it is set to be the date of the local elections.
All of this could feed into a much-sought after feelgood factor about the government.
Labour supporters traditionally are most likely to stay at home in the autumn.
So imagine the horror when the head of the European Policy Forum thinktank, Graham Mather, suggests a dozen reasons why the prime minister could go to the country on 4 November 2004 - or, to put it another way, 4114.
There is little doubt that the more sensible in the above expectant groups have already prepared themselves for just such an eventuality, if only mentally.
And I have no doubt the political parties have got, or are in the process of getting, their campaigns ready on a "just-in-case" basis.
But really - November. Everyone knows that is a no-no.
The opposition is unlikely to be weaker in May than in November.
It is always better to move ahead of the expectations of political commentators to avoid any sense of being "boxed in"
It rains - putting people off from turning out and voting in the first place.
And Labour supporters traditionally are most likely to stay at home in the autumn.
It would, as already noted, suggest the prime minister was cutting and running to capitalise on his recent turn of good fortune which may prove to be fragile.
And, worse of all, that might suggest he knows something about the future development of the economy that we don't.
The last time such an election was called was in October 1974 after Labour's Harold Wilson failed to get a majority government in the first election in the spring of that year.
He got his majority, but only just. Since then autumn has been a non runner.
And there is a danger in the prime minister allowing talk of an autumn election to grow.
The last Labour Prime Minister, Jim Callaghan, did exactly that in 1978 and then delayed it until the following spring for fear of a hung parliament.
He lost to the phenomenon that was Margaret Thatcher.
But read Graham Mather's "12 reasons why Blair may call a November poll" - and it all goes out of the window.
It is a powerful, persuasive case which will certainly cast a bit of a shadow over some people's summer holidays.
But then, maybe I am too easily persuaded. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/655510.stm | "Some 300,000 people are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance"
"Desperate struggle to cling on to something dry"
"Suddenly we were taken back again: it is very sad"
In early 2000 a cyclone swept across southern Africa leading to three weeks of severe floods which devastated Mozambique. BBC News Online charted the course of the disaster and its aftermath.
The estimated number of people needing urgent help in the wake of the Madagascar cyclone doubles to 40,000.
Mozambique's most fertile farmland is also the most prone to flooding.
Officials fly in to warn of further flooding - but most of the townsfolk are already keeping away from home.
Time for an international rescue?
Why the world watched as Mozambique drowned. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1612212.stm | US aircraft have bombed Taleban front-line positions north of the Afghan capital Kabul, in the first verified strike of its kind.
A local opposition commander said the planes had targeted Taleban positions around the Bagram airfield, and there were reports of attacks near Darra-e Sof - an opposition-held enclave outside the strategic northern city of Mazar-e Sharif.
The strikes went ahead despite concern voiced by some members of the anti-terror coalition about the possible entry into Kabul of the opposition Northern Alliance.
But US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Fox TV that it would be in the best interest of the US and its allies to "resolve" the military conflict in Afghanistan before winter.
The head of the US military, Joint Chiefs Chairman Richard Myers, said his forces had crippled the al-Qaeda network of Saudi-born militant Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan.
He told the US television channel ABC that tanks, artillery, vehicle support facilities and troop concentrations had been hit.
Meanwhile, there were reports that a number of people had been killed in Afghanistan in overnight bombing raids by US planes.
Two Western news agencies with reporters on the ground said there had been civilian casualties as a result of the bombing of residential areas.
The bombing came on a 15th night of US air strikes, a day after elite troops clashed with Taleban fighters on the ground for the first time since the campaign began.
Earlier, the Washington Post revealed that President Bush has authorised the CIA to use lethal force to eliminate Bin Laden and key members of al-Qaeda.
The CIA has been handed an extra $1bn to fund covert operations and received an unprecedented order to work more closely with elite commando units.
American intelligence has detected "new and important" weaknesses in Bin Laden's organisation which will it will attack in lethal, secret operations, the paper quoted US sources as saying.
However a Taleban official released a statement on Sunday saying that Bin Laden and his companions were "living in complete safety".
It is confirmed that the 10-year old son of Taleban leader Mullah Omar has died in a hospital in the southern city of Kandahar after being injured in one of the first nights of US bombing.
The refugee exodus continues, as several thousand Afghans cross into Pakistan at Chaman on Saturday, and the UN says up to 10,000 people are massed on the other side.
Low-flying US jets reportedly dropped at least four bombs on Kabul overnight, drawing less anti-aircraft fire than usual.
But between seven and 13 people were reported killed and several others injured when a bomb fell on a residential area of the Khair Kana district in the north-east of the city.
Most of them were from the same family living in a two-storey house which was half demolished by the bomb.
"This pilot was like he was blind," said neighbour Haziz Ullah. "There are no military bases here - only innocent people."
The US planes were thought to be targeting a Taleban base several kilometres away.
More than 100 US special forces attacked an airfield and a command and control facility near where the Taleban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar lived in Kandahar in the early hours of Saturday.
US defence chiefs said the squad of Army Rangers did not meet significant resistance from Taleban fighters and withdrew safely after several hours.
The US suffered its first casualties of the conflict when two servicemen died after a helicopter supporting the mission crashed in Pakistan.
"President Bush has given the CIA a green light to do what ever it takes to kill Osama bin Laden"
"The Americans are continuing to rely on superior air power" |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8415772.stm | Barry George has accepted "substantial" damages over claims he was stalking women and articles suggesting he murdered Jill Dando.
He accepted the undisclosed amount at the High Court against News Group Newspapers - owner of The Sun and The News of the World.
Afterwards Mr George said he was "pleased" the matter had been settled.
Mr George was cleared in August 2008 of murdering the BBC TV presenter who was shot dead in south-west London in 1999.
Mr George, from London, spent seven years in jail for the murder before being acquitted after a retrial.
Following Wednesday's brief hearing, Mr George said: "I am pleased that the matter between myself and News Group Newspapers has been amicably settled following a successful mediation without the need for litigation."
He was at London's High Court with his sister, Michelle Diskin, who led the campaign to prove his innocence.
His counsel, Gordon Bishop, told the court he had brought the action over a number of articles in The Sun and the News of the World between August and November 2008.
He said News Group had withdrawn the "false allegations" and apologised for making them.
It had agreed to pay Mr George substantial damages and all his legal costs.
A spokesperson for News Group Newspapers said: "We are pleased this matter has been amicably resolved following successful mediation and without the need for litigation." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/somerset/6915789.stm | The government has rejected Somerset County Council's plans for a single unitary authority in the area.
An announcement from the Department for Communities and Local Government on Wednesday makes the decision clear.
Councillor Ross Henley, Leader of Taunton Deane Borough Council said, "The government has listened to the voice of the people."
In a recent poll almost half the county's population voted, with 82% against the plan and 18% in favour.
The turnout was estimated at 200,000.
The poll, which was not a referendum, was managed by the Electoral Reform Services.
Leaders and chief executives will meet to discuss the decision and how to progress their plans for shared services and improving two-tier local government.
"I am delighted that the government has listened to the people of Somerset and their message that one huge council for was not for them," said Councillor Harvey Siggs, leader of Mendip District Council. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/entertainment-arts-33877753/bafta-tribute-to-downton-abbey-as-cast-film-final-scenes | BAFTA tribute to Downton Abbey Jump to media player The cast and crew of the hit drama Downton Abbey have been presented with a special award by BAFTA, as they film their final scenes.
Downton actress in plea for Syria children Jump to media player Downton Abbey actress Laura Carmichael visits Lebanon's Bekaa Valley to highlight the plight of Syrian children refugees.
The Duchess goes to Downton Jump to media player The Duchess of Cambridge is making one of her final public appearances before she gives birth to her second child.
Bonneville: Bears, Obamas and the BBC Jump to media player Actor Hugh Bonneville tells Andrew Marr about the spice of Nicole Kidman, the future of W1A and the past of Downton Abbey.
Carter reads Sassoon on Remembrance Sunday Jump to media player Downton Abbey actor Jim Carter reads Siegfried Sassoon while musician Steve Knightly and his Show of Hands band performed on the Andrew Marr programme.
Downton Abbey star meets 'double' Jump to media player Downton Abbey actor Hugh Bonneville has been modelled into a waxwork for the Madam Tussauds collection in London.
Britain 'becoming like Downton Abbey' Jump to media player The leader of Britain's trade union movement has warned of creating a "Downton Abbey-style" society in which social mobility "has hit reverse".
Starched collars revived at laundry Jump to media player A Bournemouth laundry has revived the art of producing a starched collar, thanks to film and TV productions including Downton Abbey.
The cast and crew of the hit drama Downton Abbey have been presented with a special award by BAFTA as they film their final scenes.
The last episode will be shown on Christmas Day, but the writer Julian Fellowes says he is considering making a Downton Abbey film. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-46499040 | A helicopter has crashed in eastern Sudan, killing a state governor and at least four other officials.
The helicopter exploded in flames after it hit a communications tower as it tried to land in the remote Al-Qadarif state, witnesses are quoted by AFP news agency as saying.
No official reason has yet been given for the crash.
A number of people were taken to hospital for treatment, state media reported, without giving more details.
Among the dead are Al-Qadarif governor Mirghani Saleh, his cabinet chief, the local police chief and agriculture minister, the reports added.
Sudan's military fleet includes many aircraft bought from the former Soviet Union.
Eight people were injured in October when two of its planes collided on the runway at the airport in the capital, Khartoum.
In September, two pilots were killed when a military jet crashed near Omdurman, Khartoum's twin city. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4469761.stm | The new series of Doctor Who has seen Christopher Eccleston fight living dummies, restless spirits and aliens disguised as MPs, but he has yet to face his mortal enemies The Daleks.
That will be rectified in a forthcoming episode entitled simply Dalek, in which the Time Lord finds that one of the metal killing machines has been collected by an unsuspecting billionaire.
Voted the most evil Doctor Who villains of all time, the Daleks and their desire to "exterminate!" seem an integral part of the sci-fi series.
But their return was almost ruled out completely by a lengthy dispute between the BBC and the estate of late Dalek creator Terry Nation.
After the estate accused the corporation of trying to "ruin the brand of the Daleks" by wrestling control of their image, the dispute was resolved last August.
As episode director Joe Ahearne explained, the Dalek confronted by the Doctor and Rose (Billie Piper) is a monster for a new generation.
"The Daleks of the 1960s and 1970s would not make the grade today," he says. "They would be seen as comical rather than frightening. We couldn't have that."
Stairs have not been a problem for Daleks since 1988, when they first levitated towards Sylvester McCoy in Remembrance of the Daleks.
The new Dalek can also spin its torso independently of his head, so creeping up from behind is no longer an option. Its trademark "sink plunger" attachment also reveals a terrifying new function.
"We have taken all the perceived weaknesses of the Dalek and made them deadly," says Mike Tucker, the BBC model unit's miniature effects supervisor.
While Tucker operated the Dalek's head by remote control, Nicholas Briggs provided its chilling metallic voice and Barnaby Edwards sat inside its shell.
"You would be amazed at the number of people who wanted to get inside the Dalek," says Edwards, who also operated a Dalek in 1993 BBC documentary 30 Years in the Tardis.
"Sit on a swivel chair, put a dustbin on your head and you've got the same effect."
The new Dalek is brought to life by a combination of physical models and computer-generated effects, with most of its movement made by remote control - to Edwards' relief.
"Moving a Dalek is like trying to operate a fully-laden shopping trolley from the inside," he says.
Edwards spent stints of up to four hours inside the Dalek body, watching the rest of the cast through an envelope-shaped gap.
"I was inside the Dalek for as many shots as possible, so Chris had someone to play off rather than just talking to an empty shell," he said.
The Dalek's voice, originally created by the defunct BBC Radiophonic Workshop, is now made by Briggs alone as he talks into a box device called a ring modulator.
"Roughly a third of the lines in the episode are either spoken by the Dalek or Rose," says Briggs. "It never shuts up!"
Usually presented as part of a legion, the Dalek appears alone in the episode which enables it to interact more extensively with the other characters.
"A dustbin in itself is not scary, it's the performance behind it," adds Briggs. "In rehearsals we found ourselves talking about the Dalek's motivation!"
Former Coronation Street star Bruno Langley appears in the episode as Adam, who helps the Doctor and his companion deal with the revitalised Dalek.
"It was great to appear in such an important episode," he says. "My character gets on very well with Rose, which of course makes the Doctor jealous."
The 22-year-old says he can now understand why actor Ewan McGregor found it difficult to act alone on the Star Wars movie sets, where characters were added by computer afterwards.
"It made it much easier for us to have the Dalek physically there in front of us," Langley says.
"But there were a lot of shots which had to be re-done because the Dalek got stuck in a doorway."
The cast and crew remained tight-lipped about how soon the Daleks would return to further terrorise the Doctor.
Tucker would only say ominously: "You will never get rid of the Daleks."
Doctor Who: Dalek is on BBC One on Saturday 30 April at 1900 BST. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1982275.stm | About 100,000 people have marched through the Venezuelan capital Caracas to protest against President Hugo Chavez, who was briefly ousted by rebel troops in April before being restored to power.
The rally was in memory of 17 people killed in a big anti-government march before the unsuccessful coup.
The authorities have promised an impartial investigation into the deaths, but critics of Mr Chavez say it is being led by a state prosecutor loyal to him.
In a different part of the city pro-Chavez groups marched on the prosecutor's office to demand a quick investigation into who started the violence.
The anti-Chavez demonstrators wore black to mark their disappointment at his return to power and chanted slogans such as "We are here and we're not afraid".
Banners carried messages saying "Chavez murderer" and "Forgetting is forbidden".
BBC correspondent Adam Easton in Caracas says the demonstration is a clear sign that the country is more polarised than ever.
Our correspondent says Mr Chavez's biggest test is to convince his opponents to work with him instead of against him.
"It's difficult to see how the two Venezuelas can reconcile their different agendas." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7637087.stm | Anti-Christian riots have rocked several parts of India over the past month. The BBC's Soutik Biswas travelled to a remote region in the eastern state of Orissa, where the recent violence broke out, to investigate the complex roots of the conflict.
A narrow ribbon of fraying tar snakes up from the plains of Orissa to the hills of Kandhamal, an unlikely setting for what is being described as the country's latest battle over faith.
There is no railroad to this remote landlocked district dominated by tribes people. Here, they and a growing number of Hindu Dalits (formerly known as untouchables) who have converted to Christianity have lived together for centuries, tilling its fertile land, growing vegetables, turmeric and ginger.
It is also the place which has been rocked by violence between Hindus and Christians over the past month. Events here have triggered off anti-Christian attacks in a number of other states.
Villages have been attacked, people killed, churches and prayer houses desecrated. Radical Hindu groups have accused Christian groups of converting people against their will. Christian groups say these allegations are baseless.
Kandhamal continues to simmer a month after the murder of a controversial 82-year-old Hindu holy man and the consequent rioting between local tribes people and Christians.
Some 13,000 Christians are still living in tented refugee camps, with many having no homes to return to.
The popular narrative is that the conflict is all about tribes people, egged on by radical Hindu groups, targeting the Christian community to put an end to the church and its growing influence in the region.
But that is only a small part of Kandhamal's tangled conflict. To describe it as a war over religion is to simplify it, say analysts and officials.
They say it is essentially a decades-old conflict over identity, rights and entitlements.
Faith is now being used as a tool to rake up and settle old disputes. A similar bloody clash between the two communities in the early 1990s that killed some 24 people went largely unreported because it did not assume a religious hue.
At the root of the conflict is the unchecked rift among the majority Kandha tribes people - one of Orissa's 62 tribal communities who make up over 22% of the state's population - and the minority Hindu Pana Dalit community who have converted to Christianity in droves.
The Kandha tribes people comprise more than half of the district's 648,000 population and they openly say they are angry with their Christian neighbours.
Unlike their counterparts in many parts of India who have been ignored, exploited or displaced, the isolated tribes people of Kandhamal, in the words of local officials, are "proud and assertive".
Literacy among them has risen to around 40%, just under the 43% literacy rate for the district.
Living outside the pale of India's oppressive caste system and on the margins of society with their animist practices, Kandhamal's tribes people have not found a good reason yet to convert to Christianity in large numbers.
The untouchables on the other hand have borne the brunt of the caste system and have converted for a better life and more dignity.
Resultantly, the Christian population in the district has leapt by 56% between 1991 and 2001, when India's last census was conducted, while the average population grew up only 18% during the same period.
The pet complaint among the tribes people is that after converting to Christianity, their neighbours have become aggressive.
They say they have grabbed their lands - land owned by tribes people in India cannot be bought under the country's laws - and used fake certificates to declare themselves as tribes people to take advantage of complex affirmative action benefits like government jobs.
"The Christian converts have been stealing our crops and livestock. They are ploughing and taking away our lands using force, they are faking their identities to get jobs. They want to have the best of both worlds," says Lambodhar Kanhar, who heads an increasingly influential group local group of tribes people.
Officials say there is merit in some of these allegations and they should have been investigated and settled a long time ago. The failure to do so has led to growing animosity between the two groups.
"There are some issues. We are working to resolve the issues of land acquisitions and fake caste certificates," says the district's most senior official, Krishan Kumar.
Things began to take a religious turn some 40 years ago when a Hindu religious man, Laxmananda Saraswati, arrived here.
He set up schools and clinics, ran anti-liquor campaigns, openly railed against conversions and organised reconversions of some returnees to Hinduism.
He also became popular among the tribes people because his ire was mainly directed against Christian converts.
The holy man instantly became a target of his opponents, surviving some nine assassination attempts before he was murdered last month by a group of gunmen.
There are reports of local Maoist rebels claiming responsibility, but officials rubbish this suggestion, saying that rebels do not gain anything by killing a Hindu holy man.
By all accounts, Laxmananda Saraswati was both a revered and feared man: the first, for his social work; the second, for his rabble rousing against the minorities.
He had clear links with the radical Hindu group, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, whose pamphlets describe him as a "formidable force against conversions by Christians" and somebody who "enlightened innocent tribes regarding their land rights".
With his killing, what was essentially a movement for identity and rights mutated into a religious battle between the tribes people and the Christian converts.
A spokesman for Orissa's Christian community insists it is basically a religious fight, provoked by radical Hindu groups who want to polarise people ahead of general elections.
"Why is the violence happening now? The radical Hindu groups want to polarise people to benefit Hindu nationalist parties during polls. It is also part of a larger design to attack Christians," says Dr Swaroopananda Patra.
Officials say that this is only a part of the problem.
"It is a cocktail of problems: economic, ethnic, religious. Any of these factors can precipitate violence in these parts," says Krishan Kumar.
What is clear that none of this would have happened if the state had carried out its duties on time - addressed the tribes peoples' grievances, prevented land and identity fraud and protected both communities from rabble rousers. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5166806.stm | US President George W Bush has approved an $80m (£43m) fund which he says will go towards boosting democracy in Cuba.
Mr Bush said the fund would help the Cuban people in their "transition from repressive control to freedom".
The fund is part of proposals by a commission analysing US policy towards Cuba after the eventual death of Fidel Castro, who turns 80 next month.
The Cuban government said the plan was an act of aggression, violating Cuba's sovereignty and international law.
The president of Cuba's National Assembly, Ricardo Alarcon, said the world should be outraged by the actions of the US.
"They will not destroy the nation. They will not succeed in doing that. But they will cause harm and deprivation and suffering of individuals," he said.
The US announcement comes as President Castro, in power since 1959, prepares to celebrate his birthday in August and amid moves by the Cuban government to give a higher profile to his designated successor, his 75-year-old brother Raul Castro.
In a statement, President Bush said he had approved a "compact" with the Cuban people which outlined how the US would support them "as they transition from the repressive control of the Castro regime to freedom and a genuine democracy".
"The report demonstrates that we are actively working for change in Cuba, not simply waiting for change," Mr Bush said.
The report, drawn up by the US Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, also includes other measures such as enforcing sanctions already in place against the communist regime and "providing uncensored information" for Cubans who want change.
The commission's members include US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez.
Ms Rice said the funding and report's recommendations aimed to help "Cuba's brave opposition leaders and to encourage those Cubans still silent out of fear but free in their hearts and minds to dream of a better future".
However, dissidents in Havana voiced concern that the new funding could serve as a pretext for the Cuban authorities to step up the pressure on them.
"I really appreciate the solidarity of the United States government and people, but I think that this report is counterproductive," dissident journalist Oscar Espinosa Chepe told foreign news agencies.
"I believe Cubans have to be the ones who solve our problems and any interference serves to complicate the situation."
Since the fall of the US-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1959, Cuba has been a one-party state led by Mr Castro.
Since 1961, the US has maintained a strict economic embargo against Cuba. |