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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-29992686 | The UK carried out its first drone attack on Islamic State militants in Iraq over the weekend, the Ministry of Defence has said.
An RAF Reaper drone was involved in coalition missions near Baiji, the site of Iraq's largest oil refinery.
The MoD said the drone "successfully attacked" militants who were laying improvised explosive devices.
Britain is one of about 40 nations involved in the fight against IS, which controls parts of Iraq and Syria.
The UK launched its first air strikes against IS targets in Iraq on 30 September - four days after Parliament approved military action.
It has also sent military trainers to help local forces in their efforts to halt the advance of IS.
BBC defence correspondent Jonathan Beale said it was the first time a Reaper drone had also been used to carry out an airstrike.
"The MoD are still not saying how many Reapers have been redeployed from Afghanistan to the region," he added.
"It's understood the remotely-piloted aircraft have conducted more than a dozen sorties over Iraq so far - mostly in a reconnaissance role."
The MoD said RAF Tornado jets were also involved in airstrikes near the oil refinery in Baiji over the weekend.
The town, about 200km (130 miles) north of the capital Baghdad, was seized by militants in June but they failed to capture the refinery.
On Sunday, officials said Iraqi government forces had regained large areas of the town.
An RAF aircraft also destroyed a shipping container west of Baghdad, on Sunday morning. The MoD said the container was "used by the terrorists to store equipment to support extortion and control of the local population".
Last week, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said the UK would be sending more military trainers to Iraq. A dozen British trainers have already been deployed to work with Kurdish forces in the northern city of Erbil.
On Sunday, the US announced it was sending another 1,500 troops to Iraq. US President Obama said the deployment of the non-combat advisers marked a "new phase" in the fight against IS. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10486418 | Former BBC 5 live presenter Allan Robb has died at the age of 49. He had been suffering from multiple sclerosis.
The broadcaster, who fronted the station's Midday News for several years, began his career at Aberdeen's Northsound Radio.
At the BBC, Robb covered stories including the death of Princess Diana and the dawning of the Millennium.
Childhood friend and 5 live host Nicky Campbell called him "a great broadcaster and professional".
"It's one of the saddest days of my life," he added.
Campbell said he was proud of his job at the BBC: "He pointed up to Broadcasting House and said 'we work there for the BBC'. He never forgot that."
Robb was also a presenter on Radio 1's Newsbeat programme and on BBC Radio Scotland during the course of his career.
Atholl Duncan, BBC Scotland's head of news and current affairs, said Robb would be "fondly remembered by his many colleagues on Reporting Scotland as an extremely professional presenter and a highly skilled and tenacious journalist". |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36136608 | Media captionCanada's PM Justin Trudeau described the killing as "cold-blooded murder"
The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has condemned the beheading of a Canadian hostage kidnapped by Islamist militants in the Philippines.
John Ridsdel, 68, was taken from a tourist resort with three others by the Abu Sayyaf group in September 2015.
In November, the Islamist militants released a video showing Mr Ridsdel and three other captives, and demanded a ransom of $80m (£55m).
Mr Trudeau called his death "an act of cold-blooded murder".
A Philippines army spokesman said Mr Ridsdel's severed head was found on the remote island of Jolo, hours after the Abu Sayyaf ransom deadline expired.
Who are the Abu Sayyaf group?
Mr Ridsdel was taken to Jolo after being kidnapped from a marina near the city of Davao, along with another Canadian, Robert Hall; a Norwegian, Kjartan Sekkingstad; and a Philippine woman, Mr Hall's girlfriend, Marites Flor.
Mr Ridsdel later warned in a video released by the group that he was due to be killed on 25 April if no ransom was paid.
The Canadian government has a policy against paying ransoms.
Confirming the death of Mr Ridsdel, Mr Trudeau called it a "heinous act".
"Canada condemns without reservation the brutality of the hostage-takers, and this unnecessary death. This was an act of cold-blooded murder and responsibility rests squarely with the terrorist group who took him hostage," he said in a statement.
One of smallest but most radical of Islamist separatist groups in southern Philippines, its name means "bearer of the sword" in Arabic.
It split from the larger Moro National Liberation Front in 1991. Membership is said to number in the low hundreds.
The group has been agitating for the creation of an independent Islamic state in predominantly Catholic Philippines, and uses tactics such as hostage-taking and bombings to pressure the government.
Several of its factions have pledged allegiance to the so-called Islamic State.
Numerous Filipino and foreign civilians have been kidnapped in south Philippines and parts of neighbouring Malaysia over the decades, and used as hostages to extract ransoms.
Though some have been released after negotiations or attacks by Philippine forces, others have been murdered when demands were not met.
Abu Sayyaf has also said it carried out bombings in cities in the south and a ferry bombing in 2004 in Manila Bay that killed more than 100 people, considered one of the worst terror attacks in the Philippines.
"It's hard," a friend of Mr Ridsdel, Bob Rae, told CBC News. "It's just very hard. I've been involved behind the scenes for the last six months trying to find a solution and it's been very painful."
A former mining executive, Mr Ridsdel is described by Canadian media as semi-retired. He also worked as a journalist.
Abu Sayyaf was set up in the 1990s and received funding from al-Qaeda. It is fighting for an independent Islamic province in the Philippines.
Several of its factions have declared their allegiance to the militant group Islamic State. Abu Sayyaf is also holding several other foreigners.
Eighteen Philippine soldiers were killed in clashes with the militants on Basilan island near Jolo island earlier this month. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/b/bournemouth/4479705.stm | Bournemouth have extended the loan spells of defenders Frankie Simek and Matthew Mills.
Arsenal have agreed to let USA youth international Simek, 20, stay for a second month so he will now be at Dean Court until the end of May.
Mills, 18, has extended his loan for a third month, until midnight on 24 May, after Southampton approved the deal.
The pair's arrival on loan, after a run of injuries to defenders, was funded by Cherries' fan-run Playershare scheme.
Bournemouth have reduced the price of coach travel - with the aid of local companies - for their fans for next Saturday's away game at Bradford.
The Valley Parade contest will see O'Driscoll's side bid to extend their club record run of six successive away victories, as they continue their push for the play-offs. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1876663.stm | The United States is sending 10 million school textbooks and some teacher trainers to Afghanistan.
In his weekly radio address, President George W Bush said education was the pathway to progress for the next generation of Afghans, especially women.
A BBC correspondent says there is a political message to go with the gift.
Mr Bush said the textbooks would teach tolerance and respect for human rights, instead of indoctrinating students with what he called fanaticism and bigotry.
He said that when Afghan children began their new school term next week, they would find that the US had already sent more than four million textbooks to their country.
"Before the end of the year we will have sent almost 10 million of them to the children of Afghanistan," he said.
The textbooks are written in the Afghan languages of Pashto and Dari.
"Education is the pathway to progress, particularly for women," said the president.
"Educated women tend to be healthier than those who are not well-educated. And the same is true of their families."
He added: "Babies born to educated women are more likely to be immunised, better nourished, and survive their first year of life.
"Nations where women are educated are more competitive, more prosperous and more advanced than nations where the education of women is forbidden or ignored."
The United States will also pay for 20 teams of teacher trainers to work with Afghan educators.
Mr Bush said the US still had work to do in Afghanistan, where its forces are fighting alongside Afghan troops to drive out al-Qaeda militants.
But he added: "Even as we fight terror, American compassion is providing an alternative to bitterness, resentment and hatred."
Previous US aid to Afghanistan has not always been a success.
During the air strikes against Taleban targets last October, US planes dropped hundreds of tonnes of food parcels into areas where local people faced starvation.
But aid agencies asked them to stop because the bright yellow parcels were the same colour as unexploded cluster bomblets - and some Afghans had been maimed and killed picking them up.
Some of the parcels also ended up in mine fields.
It was also alleged that a lot of the food was falling into the hands of the Taleban.
On a more positive note, in January the US pledged almost $300m to Afghanistan in the coming year, on top of $400m in humanitarian assistance committed by President Bush last autumn. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-35742097 | A dissident republican group calling itself the IRA has said it was responsible for the attempted murder of a prison officer in east Belfast.
The 52-year-old officer suffered serious injuries when a bomb exploded under his van on Friday morning.
The group, which is widely referred to as the new IRA, said he was targeted for training officers at Maghaberry Prison near Lisburn in County Antrim.
Three men, aged 34, 41 and 45, and a 34-year-old woman have been arrested.
Police said the device partially exploded when the prison officer, a father of three, drove over a speed ramp in Hillsborough Drive.
He is in a stable condition in hospital.
In a statement to the BBC, the group said he was one of a number of prison officers on a list of "potential targets".
They claimed he was targeted because he was responsible for training prison officers who work in a wing housing dissident republicans at Maghaberry prison.
A spokesman for the group said last week's attack was the result of an ongoing dispute between dissidents and the prison authorities about their treatment in the prison.
Police have not commented on the nature of the device used in the attack, but the group's statement claimed it contained a quantity of Semtex and a commercial detonator.
The same dissident organisation shot dead prison officer David Black as he drove to work at Maghaberry in November 2012.
After Friday's attack, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said it was deeply concerned that dissident republicans were determined to escalate their activities to mark the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising.
Assistant Chief Constable Stephen Martin warned that further attacks in the run up to Easter were "highly likely".
There has been widespread condemnation of Friday's attack, including from Northern Ireland's First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.
The group widely referred to as the New IRA was formed in the summer of 2012, from the amalgamation of a number of dissident republican organisations.
It is the largest dissident group currently active. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12814003 | Two US tourists have died in an accident at Iguazu Falls on the border between Brazil and Argentina.
They were in an inflatable boat which capsized after apparently hitting rocks near the base of the waterfall, Argentine officials said.
At least five others were rescued from the water but suffered injuries.
The spectacular waterfalls at Iguazu are a major tourist attraction, and every day hundreds of people take short boat trips to their base.
The Associated Press named the two victims as Laura Matejik Eberts, 25, and Philip Musgrove, 70.
The injured included two Germans, one American, one Colombian and one Argentine.
Several police launches and a helicopter joined the rescue effort and the search for bodies.
"it has been more than 10 years since we had an accident of this kind," Argentine National Parks official Daniel Costra told local media.
The waterfall complex at Iguazu consists of 275 separate waterfalls along a 3km (two-mile) stretch of the Iguazu river. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4308839.stm | The number of asylum seekers in the world's 38 industrialised countries in 2004 fell to its lowest level in 16 years - but for several of the EU's new member-states the figures rose sharply.
The BBC's Central and South-East Europe analyst, Gabriel Partos, examines what lies behind the European trends reported by the United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR.
The world's three largest traditional destinations for asylum seekers - the United States, Germany and Britain - have all registered huge drops in the number of people applying for asylum in recent years.
Last year they were overtaken by France as the leading receiving country.
In general, the scale of the asylum problem across western Europe is now down to a level last seen in the mid- to late 1980s.
The continuing drop in numbers in recent years has been due to a combination of factors: a stricter asylum policy in the receiving countries and greater political stability - or at least a widely-shared hope for a better future - in some of the major source regions, including Afghanistan, Iraq and the Balkans.
But Serbia and Montenegro - primarily through Kosovo - remains the second largest source of asylum seekers after the Russian Federation.
In spite of this overall downward trend - 19% across the EU as a whole - the EU's 10 new members actually registered a small increase of 4% in asylum seekers last year.
Cyprus, Malta, Poland and Slovakia - plus Finland from among the older EU members - actually saw a marked increase in arrivals last year.
The UNHCR's spokesman for Europe, Rupert Colville, identified two reasons for this contrasting trend.
"Some countries are getting a large number of Chechens - people from the Russian Federation but the majority of them Chechens.
"In the case of Cyprus, which has gone up a lot, it's a bit of a local anomaly, really, in that they've had a large number of Bangladeshi and Pakistani students who were in Cyprus, who have then been claiming asylum. It's a sort of disconnect between the migration system and the asylum system."
Behind these specific reasons, there is also a broader trend.
In many cases the new members - whether on the eastern fringes of central Europe or in the south and eastern Mediterranean - now form the new borders of the EU.
Apart from being the first - and often the easiest - point of arrival in the EU, these countries are also becoming increasingly prosperous and, therefore, more of a magnet for would-be asylum claimants.
But claiming asylum in itself does not by any means guarantee success.
Rupert Colville highlighted the situation in Slovakia, which "is definitely very overburdened with asylum seekers".
"It has a very young asylum system, very fragile, let's say. They had 11,300 in 2004, which is a lot for the Slovak Republic.
"However, hardly anyone is getting recognised [as refugees] in the Slovak Republic, even though they have a high number of Chechens coming there, whereas in neighbouring countries, like Austria for example, you find a much, much higher recognition rate."
Even among the new central European members of the EU there are diverging trends.
The Czech Republic and Hungary have been following the downward shift in western Europe, with a massive 52% reduction in last year's asylum claimants in the Czech Republic and a one-third drop in Hungary.
Similarly, Bulgaria and Romania - which will form the next wave of EU enlargement - have seen a sizeable decrease.
In general, though, the contradictory developments across the EU are a source of concern to the UNHCR.
"What is a glaring omission, I think, is any kind of burden-sharing mechanism," says Mr Colville.
"That's worrying us, particularly for these new member-states. Obviously, as the new border states, they are coming under some pressure. And there's really no system for the EU to help out countries which are getting their undue share of the numbers."
The limited extent of existing burden-sharing mechanisms is less of a problem at a time when the numbers of asylum seekers are down to a level last seen nearly 20 years ago.
The danger is that if there is another major conflict that would prompt a large wave of asylum seekers, the EU's new members with their limited resources could easily be overwhelmed.
Friso Roscam Abbing, a spokesman for the European Commission, says however that the EU is not turning away from the problem.
"We are obviously aware of the increase in the number of asylum seekers in a number of EU member states, and precisely in those who have external borders," he says.
The "Hague programme" adopted last November by European leaders said there should be assistance for member states which merely due to their geographical location faced an influx of asylum seekers or immigrants, Mr Abbing noted.
"This is where the whole idea of solidarity - very solemnly enshrined also in the European constitutional treaty, in the chapter on immigration and asylum - and burden-sharing kicks in."
In 2000, after lengthy negotiations, EU leaders allocated 216m euros (£149m; $286m) to a European Refugee Fund (ERF), to run until the end of 2004.
Last year, they agreed to extend the fund for the period 2005-2010.
Some 10m euros of the fund can be used in an emergency, to house, feed and offer medical assistance to a sudden large influx of refugees anywhere in the EU.
EU leaders have also pledged to develop a common asylum system by the end of the decade, but that may be harder to achieve than handing out money. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/essex/5359464.stm | Britain's only native crayfish which was feared extinct in Essex has made a comeback.
Essex Biodiversity Action Plan environmentalists have discovered a colony of white-clawed crayfish thriving in the River Chelmer.
The survey found 18 of the crustaceans from mature crayfish to babies.
The species has been wiped out in many parts of the country by the non-native larger American signal crayfish with whom they have to compete for food.
Project officer Mark Iley said: "It's the only site in Essex where we know that we have these white-clawed crayfish."
The crayfish play an important role in the aquatic food web, providing a food source for a variety of animals such as fish, birds and mammals such as the otter.
They like clean water and shelter in crevices under submerged stones, tree roots and plants.
"We will be improving their habitat by putting in rocks and wire baskets to provide a refuge for them.
"It's good that we have got a positive site but we now have to protect it," said Mr Iley.
In addition to displacing the native crayfish, the signal crayfish also carry a plague, a fungal disease that is deadly to British animals. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/2117354.stm | The official inquiry into the murder of abuse victim Victoria Climbie has accused a government watchdog of hampering its investigation.
Lord Laming, the inquiry's chairman, said its findings were delayed because the Social Services Inspectorate (SSI) submitted a vital report three weeks after the first hearing ended in February this year.
The investigation has re-opened to allow experts to assess the report's implications.
The document casts doubt on an earlier report which backed Haringey Social Services, the department responsible for the eight-year-old.
Victoria had 128 separate injuries on her body when she died, in February 2000, after months of abuse at the hands of her great aunt Marie Therese Kouao and her aunt's boyfriend Carl Manning.
Both are serving life sentences for the child's murder.
The head of the SSI apologised via her lawyer to the inquiry on Tuesday for not realising the document's significance.
Lord Laming said the actions of the SSI, a branch of the Health Department, had in turn delayed the publication of the inquiry's report into Victoria's death by at least three months.
"I cannot emphasise strongly enough that I did not expect to encounter any such difficulty with a department of government - least of all from one of the departments that established this inquiry," he said.
The inquiry is expected to make radical recommendations for reform of Britain's child protection services.
It will now not be available until December.
The document in question contradicted a report into Haringey Social Services from February of that year which had said service-users were "generally well served".
This earlier report was heavily relied on during the inquiry by the council against charges of incompetence.
However the internal review concluded this report had presented "an overly positive picture of Haringey's social services, particularly children's services".
The document was ready by April 2001 but the hearing was told the SSI presumed the document was not relevant to the inquiry.
But Lord Laming said: "It is manifestly clear that this document was of potential importance to this inquiry."
Denise Platt, the SSI head said, in a statement read out by her lawyer, that "with hindsight" the report was relevant.
"I sincerely apologise for not appreciating this earlier."
Ms Platt did not attend the hearing.
"An internal report has not been presented to the inquiry until now" |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7737134.stm | Net immigration to the UK increased to 237,000 in 2007, according to the Office for National Statistics.
That is 46,000 more than in 2006 - as a result of emigration falling faster than immigration.
The figures also show the number of people registering for work in the UK from eastern European countries such as Poland and Latvia declined.
But asylum applications were up 12% between July and October this year - the fifth consecutive increase.
The figures mean that the population has grown by 1.8 million because of immigration since Labour came to power in 1997.
The figures suggest the UK population was just under 61 million last year.
Immigration minister Phil Woolas - who sparked controversy last month by suggesting the UK population could be limited to 70 million - said the latest figures painted a "complicated" picture but he was "pleased with the overall trend". He predicted net immigration would fall below 200,000 in next year's figures.
"I think the serious trend is showing that there are less British people leaving Britain to go and perhaps live in Spain and elsewhere and the numbers coming into the country have also gone down," he told the BBC.
"And that's before we take into account the effect of Polish people returning back to Poland to work in their own economies."
He said that "people worried about an increase in the population can be reassured when you look into these figures" and he claimed the government's new points-based migration system, which comes into effect on 27 November, would mean the UK population would not soar in the way previously predicted.
"With the points based system we can control the increase and the 70 million figure will become a fantasy," said Mr Woolas.
But the Conservatives - who want an annual limit on immigration from outside the EU - said the figures showed immigration was out of control.
Shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve said: "Immigration can be of real benefit to the country but only if it is properly controlled.
"These figures betray a government that has completely lost control over the last 10 years. This chaos is likely to increase as the home secretary and new immigration minister continue to be at loggerheads over government policy.
"The government should stop squabbling and adopt our policies of an annual limit on non-EU immigration, transitional controls on future EU immigration and establishing a dedicated UK border police force."
Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: "The substantial benefits of immigration are being undermined by Government incompetence, which has shattered public confidence in the system.
"These figures deal only with legal migration, but the truth is ministers have no idea how many illegal immigrants are living in Britain. Since the Tories and Labour abolished exit checks, we cannot know who is leaving the country. All immigration figures are guesstimates as a result."
Former Labour minister Frank Field, who has called for a new tougher cross-party approach, said: "Today's figures will come as a shock to ministers. Net migration is much higher than expected. This means immigration has directly added a million people to the UK's population in just the past five years.
"Unless firm action is taken very soon, our population will hit 70 million even earlier than the Government's present forecast of 2028. There is no way in which our public services can cope with such a rapid increase."
But Danny Sriskandarajah of the Institute for Public Policy Research said many critics were missing the point by focusing on 2007's figures.
"The real story is that there are already signs that immigration is starting to slow in 2008," said Dr Sriskandarajah.
"Scaremongerers who spread panic about immigration fuelling population growth to 70 million fall into the trap of thinking that the next decade will look just like the last.
"Migration ebbs and flows over time. Immigration boomed when the economy was booming and is likely to slow naturally as the economy slows. If previous recessions are anything to go by, we may end up losing more people than we gain."
Sir Andrew Green of Migrationwatch UK said his organisation's research indicated the opposite: "These figures for 2007 do not take account of the impending recession," he said.
"But the history of previous recessions is that their effect is only temporary. After a couple of years immigration has invariably resumed its upward path."
According to the ONS figures, emigration was down sharply from 2006 when 400,000 people left the country, mostly to live in Australia, New Zealand, Spain or France.
An estimated 340,000 people of all backgrounds left the UK for twelve months or more in 2007.
The estimated number of people arriving to live in the UK for twelve months or more was 577,000 in 2007, compared with 591,000 in 2006.
The figures suggest fewer people are coming to work in the UK from Eastern Europe, with 21,000 fewer applications for work between July and September, compared with the same period in 2006.
There were 6,620 asylum applications between July and September this year, compared with 5,885 in the same quarter last year.
Over the 12 months to the end of September 2008, there were 25,800 asylum applications, a 15% rise on the numbers for the preceding 12 months.
There has also been a rise in the number of people removed from the UK, with more than 17,500 ejected between July and September, 9% up on the same period last year.
Although it has risen, net immigration is still slightly lower than the record figure of 244,000, reached in 2004.
Polish citizens made up the largest single national group of immigrants, with 96,000 coming to the UK in 2007. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/1935389.stm | National Insurance contributions will be increased to fund the National Health Service, the chancellor has said.
Mr Brown also unveiled a series of measures which he said would put families first.
These are aimed at helping the lowest earners through the tax system.
He also announced a new scheme designed to encourage couples without children back into work.
Duty on spirits, petrol, wine and beer will not increase, although cigarettes are going up.
But punters will not have to pay betting tax on bingo games.
And people who drive the least polluting cars, vans and motorbikes will be rewarded with cheaper tax discs.
From April 2003, the rate of national insurance (NI) for all employees, employers and self-employed will increase by 1% on earnings above �4,615.
This is basically a tax increase, he has broken the Labour party manifesto.
The chancellor said this would mean that a full time worker, on an average income of �21,400 a year, would pay �3.70 a week more.
He froze the upper ceiling at which national insurance is paid to �30,940 from April 2003, but employees and the self-employed who earn above this amount will continue to pay the additional 1% beyond the ceiling.
For employers there is no upper limit, so they will also pay the extra 1% on any employee's earnings above the �4,615.
Chas Roy-Chowdjury, of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, accused the chancellor of being economic with the truth in his speech.
He said: "This is basically a tax increase, he has broken the Labour party manifesto. He has hiked the basic rate of income tax plus effectively abolished the upper earnings limit. He now has to tell the truth."
Julian Jessop, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank said: "He's basically raised all the money that he needs from a single tax and...it's a tax that hits middle income households particularly hard".
Many unions were broadly in favour of the budget measures.
John Monks, TUC general secretary said: "While no-one likes paying extra tax, the country knows that it cannot have excellent public services without paying for them.
The benefits workers receive from their employers, such as company cars and medical insurance might also be hit because national insurance is paid on these benefits.
Pensions, though, will be exempt.
The lower earnings threshold will stay at the current level of �4,615 and that means the National Insurance tax increases will be more keenly felt.
The UK's poorest families are in line for bigger handouts from the Treasury.
It will certainly help many children in poorer families.
The chancellor said the tax and benefit changes meant half Britain's families with children would be better off, even with the increase in national insurance.
The government will introduce a new child tax credit next year for families with incomes up to �58,000.
There will also be extra help for child care, including help with approved child care in the family home.
Gill Haynes, chief executive of the National Childminding Association welcomed the announcement.
"It will certainly help many children in poorer families and reflect the needs of many working parents," she said.
Smokers will be hit with a 6 pence rise in the cost of a packet of 20 cigarettes, but drinkers will not have to pay any extra duty on beer, spirits and wine.
The chancellor has also frozen the duty on fuel.
Following cuts in previous budgets, there were further reductions in Vehicle Excise Duty to �30 for the least polluting cars, �55 for the most fuel efficient vans and �35 for the least polluting motorcycles.
And that move won him praise.
Alan Pulham, of the Retail Motor Industry federation said: "We are delighted that the chancellor has not milked motorists and the motor industry". |
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/business-47748636/taking-big-scary-decisions-is-critical | 'Taking scary decisions is critical' Jump to media player "Taking scary decisions is critical", says James Dawson who junked his existing teas to start again.
What you should do if your business is making you ill Jump to media player If your business is making you ill, then you're running it the wrong way, says Matthew Upchurch.
'Ask the stupid questions - it's a great skill to have' Jump to media player Knowing when to ask for advice is a great skill when you’re starting a business, says Pippa Murray, of Pip and Nut.
James Dawson had the idea of a healthy tea, which he thought would sell well among millennials. While they never warmed to it, he discovered it becoming a hit among middle-aged people.
So he decided to scrap his existing blends and start his business again from scratch. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-26817429 | A fisherman has died after receiving injuries while working alone on his boat off the Llyn peninsula in Gwynedd.
An RNLI lifeboat from Porthdinllaen and the RAF Valley rescue helicopter were called out on Sunday at 03:15 BST.
The lifeboat towed the fishing boat back in to Morfa Nefyn.
The man was named as Gareth Jones of Morfa Nefyn by the north Wales coroner on Monday morning and a post-mortem examination is being carried out.
The family has been informed and the Marine Accident Investigation Branch is working with North Wales Police to establish what happened.
The incident is not believed to be suspicious, a police spokesperson said. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/h/hull_city/7339348.stm | Hull City are looking to extend the contract of full-back Sam Ricketts, who still has a year left to run on his current deal.
The 26-year-old Welsh international defender has been outstanding in City's surge up the Championship table which has taken them to fourth place.
Ricketts joined from Swansea for £300,000 in July 2006.
Tigers boss Phil Brown said: "We've identified the players who we want to stay at the club." |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-33311902 | The European television rights for the Olympic Games have been awarded to Eurosport and its parent channel in a 1.3bn euros (£922m) deal.
It means the BBC could lose coverage of the Games in the UK from 2022, although Eurosport's parent company Discovery may lease back some of the rights.
The European rights are currently split up, country by country.
The deal will be effective for most of Europe from 2018, and in France and the UK from 2022.
Discovery and Eurosport confirmed they will develop a new Olympic TV Channel across Europe.
Media watchdog Ofcom lists the Olympics as a category A event, which must have live coverage made available to free-to-air channels.
In a statement, Discovery said it was committed to broadcasting a minimum of 200 hours of the Olympic Games and 100 hours of the Olympic Winter Games on free-to-air television, during the games period.
Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, said: "The revenue generated from this long-term partnership will be redistributed by the IOC across the Olympic Movement to support the development of sport around the world."
The BBC had in previous years been awarded the rights as part of a deal between the IOC and a group of public broadcasters across Europe.
If the BBC wants to broadcast the Olympics in future it will now have to negotiate with a rival broadcaster, Discovery.
The BBC said the Olympic Games remain "a priority" and that it has already secured the TV, radio and online rights to the next three Games in 2016, 2018 and 2020.
It will be "seeking further discussions with Discovery about the UK free-to-air rights to the 2022 and 2024 Olympic Games in due course".
"More than 90% of the UK population watched the BBC's coverage of London 2012 and it remains one of the most popular free-to-air, sporting events for UK viewers," the BBC said.
"It is not unprecedented for sports rights to be sold on a pan-territory basis, and the BBC has acquired other sports rights via sub-licensing deals with either agencies or broadcasters," it added.
In a conference call with the BBC, Mr Bach, said: "Public broadcasters have played a significant role in spreading the Games and broadcasting the Games... (but) Eurosport has contributed a lot to this in the past.
"In Great Britain, BBC has the rights to 2020. There is ample time before 2022 and 2024 to have discussions with Discovery about their cooperation. This deal at the moment is not excluding anyone, but it is showing a new broader approach to Olympic broadcasting."
The first Olympics to be broadcast on the BBC came from London in 1948. Since then, it has broadcast the Games continuously since Rome 1960.
The 2016 Olympics will be held in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and the 2018 Winter Olympics will be Pyeongchang, South Korea, while 2020's event will take place in Tokyo, Japan.
The host city for the 2022 Winter Olympics will be announced at the end of July. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2056090.stm | Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has warned against fresh attempts to topple his government as police arrested a retired colonel who led a march against him through the capital, Caracas.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said Hidalgo Valero was held on charges of unauthorised use of his army uniform, which he wore at a news conference on Wednesday where he called for the anti-Chavez protest.
Thousands of people took to the streets to demand the president's resignation.
Scores of officers were forced into retirement, and senior officers replaced by lower-ranking officers, as Chavez opponents were purged from the ranks following an attempted military coup in April.
The retired officers marched with their uniforms on hangers, showing their solidarity with the officers accused of involvement in the coup and demanding an end to what they call the use of the military for political aims.
While Chavez opponents chanted "out, you communist" - referring to the president - and called for civil disobedience, supporters cried "out with the coup supporters!" and "no fascism!"
The populist president addressed thousands of supporters in a shanty town, urging them to defend his self-proclaimed "revolution" in face of the protesters.
Since anti-government demonstrations in April left 17 people dead - and led to Mr Chavez being ousted for 48 hours by rebel officers - Venezuela has lived in a state of heightened tension.
With rumours of another possible coup circulating daily in Caracas, analysts say Thursday's march on the presidential palace could be another potential spark for violence.
There had been fears pro-Chavez supporters - grouped in the controversial Bolivarian Circles - may attack the protesters during the march.
The groups are a point of contention between the president and many in the military.
The government says the circles are not armed, but the opposition says they are militia groups and that they instigated the violence in April.
An investigation into the deaths has yet to be made public, and opponents say it cannot be impartial, because it has been led by an attorney-general loyal to Mr Chavez.
Military analysts say discontent within an already divided armed forces has been worsened by the government's purge of officers involved in the coup.
With the next round of military promotions due on 5 July, Hidalgo Valero said merit, not politics, should determine promotions. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45049024 | A new study has shown that small height evolved twice in humans on the Indonesian island of Flores.
Scientists decoded the DNA of modern-day "pygmy" people to find out if they might be partly descended from the extinct Hobbit species.
The remains of these Hobbits were found during an archaeological dig on Flores 15 years ago.
The new analysis, published in the journal Science, found no trace of the Hobbit's DNA in the present-day people.
This is important because some scientists had wondered whether modern humans (Homo sapiens) could have mixed with the Hobbit population when they first arrived on the island thousands of years ago. In theory, this could have led to Hobbit genes being passed down into living people on the island.
Although the finding excludes that idea, it may help to explain why evolution may favour small size on islands.
The fossilised remains of a small human species Homo floresiensis, nicknamed the "Hobbit", caused a sensation when they were found in Liang Bua cave.
Just over metre in height, this human relative lived on Flores before our species got there. It's thought to have gone extinct tens of thousands of years ago.
While there has been considerable research - and controversy - on the subject of the Hobbit, the evolutionary origins of living pygmy people - who also typically show small stature - have not been well studied.
The new analysis showed that the Flores pygmies are not significantly distinct, genetically-speaking, from other populations around the world. Like some other humans in the same region, the pygmies have inherited part of their DNA code from both Neanderthals and another type of early human, the Denisovans.
The scientists also found that the modern pygmies have a high occurrence of gene variants that are associated with reduced height and plant-based diets.
It was always controversial that modern-day Flores pygmies might be partly descended from Hobbits. While it may seem disappointing to find out that the genes of extinct Hobbits do not appear to live on in humans, senior author Richard Green said: "It sounds like a boring result, but it's actually quite meaningful."
The associate professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, explained: "The genetic variation that causes small stature must have been present in a common ancestor of Europeans and the Flores pygmies. The pygmies became short because of the local conditions on Flores that favour being small, and not because they are partly descended from the Hobbit species."
A previous study had argued that Hobbits evolved rapidly from a taller ancestor within a few hundred thousand years. Now, Richard Green said, "if the circumstances are right, then natural selection can act on inherited variation to create a small-bodied population over a short time".
If scientists do not have a reference sample of Hobbit DNA, then how can they be confident that the present-day pygmies are not descended from Hobbits?
Dr Tucci explained: "We used a statistical method that is able to find traces of Neanderthals and Denisovans in the genomes of living people. Then, using the same method, we looked for other DNA read-outs that showed ancestry from long ago. None were found, indicating that it is unlikely that Hobbits contributed to the gene-pool of modern day pygmies."
Prof Green said: "My colleague Professor Peter Visscher identified the gene variants that determine the short stature of pygmies - and found that they are the same ones that also occur in other modern-day humans. Together, the evidence makes it unlikely that the pygmies are in any way derived from Hobbits."
This finding also makes sense because the limited fossil evidence shows that humans and Hobbits may have lived in Flores at different times.
Unfortunately, the wet and tropical conditions on Flores mean that all efforts to isolate hobbit DNA have so far failed. Dr Serena Tucci told the BBC: "Like many other scientists, it is my dream to find ancient DNA from the Hobbit. No DNA was recovered in the original Hobbit fossils, but DNA methods have improved markedly in the last few years."
She went on to say: "What we need to find are well preserved fossils."
That day may soon be here. Prof Green explained: "New DNA sequencing technologies were not invented to work on ancient DNA, but they might as well have been. We are hopeful that colleagues using these methods in other countries will soon be able to get Hobbit DNA from bone, or from the soil."
Why are island animals often small?
Understanding the circumstances that produced people with short stature on Flores may also help to explain why normally large animals tend to become small on islands.
The most popular theory is that animals evolve smaller body size in circumstances where the environment or diet is poor over many generations. This may be because smaller individuals are at an advantage because of lower energy needs.
This current study seems to confirm these findings.
"Flores is a magical place where things go and get small," said geneticist Prof Joshua Akey at Princeton University.
Dr Tucci added: "In geographically diverse and environmentally extreme regions, a gene called FADS seems to act like a 'toggle-switch' in helping animals switch to between largely animal or plant-based diets."
Similar changes in FADS genes have been found in Bronze age individuals, as people increasingly began to sustain themselves on plant-based diets from farming vegetables and grains. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-33987669 | South Africa's justice minister has blocked the early release of athlete Oscar Pistorius from prison on Friday.
He said the decision by the parole board to free the athlete after serving 10 months of his five-year sentence was premature and without legal basis.
It could now take months for the board to review its decision, legal sources told the BBC.
Pistorius was convicted of manslaughter last year after shooting dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
The Olympic athlete insists he mistook her for an intruder.
He was due to be transferred from prison to house arrest on Friday, when he was expected to stay at his uncle's three-storey mansion in the capital, Pretoria.
Under South African law, Pistorius is eligible for release under "correctional supervision", having served a sixth of his sentence.
One of his relatives, who did not want to be named, told Reuters news agency they were "shocked and disappointed" at the news.
In a statement, South Africa's Justice Minister Michael Masutha said the decision to free the athlete was taken prematurely.
"One sixth of a five year sentence is 10 months and at the time the decision was made Mr Pistorius had served only over six months of his sentence," the statement said.
Thursday would have been Ms Steenkamp's 32nd birthday.
Her parents held a small ceremony for her close friends and supporters in her hometown of Port Elizabeth, throwing roses into the sea in her memory.
The decision by Mr Masutha to put Oscar Pistorius' early release on hold has come as a complete shock, not just to the Pistorius family but to many people who follow legal issues here.
According to the prison department, the double amputee was going to be released on Friday because this is South African law - all offenders convicted under the same law as Pistorius can be considered for correctional supervision once they have served at least one-sixth of their sentence.
In other words it was not the prison's independent view to release the Paralympian but part of South African legal procedure.
Many believe that this will merely cause a slight delay to his early release.
But the intervention by Mr Masutha, who is a lawyer, could have implications for many other cases which are less prominent.
The decision was taken after a petition to the minister by the Progressive Women's Movement of South Africa, which includes the African National Congress Women's League, part of the governing party. It had described the athlete's early release as "outrageous" and "an insult" to victims of abuse.
It seems as though his last-minute intervention was the result of this political pressure.
This week, prosecutors filed court papers calling for the athlete's conviction to be converted to murder, which carries a minimum sentence of 15 years. His defence team has a month to file its response.
During sentencing, Judge Thokozile Masipa said the state had failed to prove Pistorius' intent to kill when he fired.
Media captionTania Koen, a lawyer for Ms Steenkamp's parents Barry and June: "Ten months is not enough"
The double amputee shot and killed Ms Steenkamp through a locked bathroom door at his Pretoria home, believing she was an intruder, he told his trial.
He went on to become one of South Africa's best-known sports stars, and was the first amputee sprinter to compete against able-bodied athletes, at the 2012 London Olympics. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-middle-east-22924575/egypt-to-cut-off-diplomatic-relations-with-syria | Egypt to cut diplomacy with Syria Jump to media player The Egyptian president, Mohammed Morsi, has announced that Cairo is cutting off diplomatic relations with Syria.
Cairo: A different protest every day Jump to media player Aleem Maqbool visits several different kinds of protests in Cairo over several days.
Morsi warns against Ethiopian dam Jump to media player Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi has said "all options are open" to deal with any threat to his country's water supply posed by an Ethiopian dam.
Syria condemns chemical weapons 'lies' Jump to media player UK Prime Minster David Cameron says he share the view of the US government that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons on civilians.
Syria death toll 'at least 93,000' Jump to media player At least 93,000 people have been killed in Syria since the start of the conflict, according to the latest United Nations figures.
The Egyptian president, Mohammed Morsi, has announced that Cairo is cutting off diplomatic relations with Syria.
Addressing a rally in support of the Syrian opposition, Mr Morsi said the Syrian embassy in Cairo would be closed.
He also demanded the Lebanese militant movement Hezbollah withdraw from the fighting in Syria. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-surrey-11978926 | A kitchen at a community centre used by soldiers and civilians living at Pirbright army camp in Surrey has been officially opened after being refitted.
It is the latest project in a programme of improvements at the Jubilee Centre, aimed at helping to integrate civilian families and military personnel.
A children's play area has already been opened on the site.
Woking council's housing company, Woking Borough Homes, bought 49 former married quarter properties in 2009.
They have been used to provide affordable rented homes for local people. The Ministry of Defence used the funds raised to refurbish its remaining accommodation.
Pirbright is home to about 2,000 soldiers and their families.
It houses the 1st Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment, which has recently returned from Afghanistan, and the Army Training Centre. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4813156.stm | The Labour Party says it plans to reveal the names of people who give it commercial loans - as it fends off "cash for peerages" claims.
The Tories quickly followed Labour in saying they would reveal details of future, but not past, lenders.
Labour is trying to end the row over three men nominated for peerages after secretly lending Labour millions.
Tony Blair has denied he nominated the trio for the House of Lords in return for the loans.
But he told reporters at his monthly news conference he wanted a shake up of the honours system and the rules covering party funding, saying "the buck stops with me".
He also stressed the three donors merited their place as working Labour peers in the House of Lords.
It cannot be a barrier to a party appointment that someone has been a financial supporter of the party.
The changes would include renouncing the right of the PM to nominate people for honours such as OBEs and knighthoods and instead pass that role on to the Cabinet secretary.
They would not strip party leaders of the right to nominate working peers, something Mr Blair said was a question for any future reform of the House of Lords.
The prime minister was speaking after Labour treasurer Jack Dromey launched an internal inquiry after being "kept in the dark" about loans to the party last year totalling millions of pounds.
The rules on party funding dictate that anyone donating £5,000 or more should be named - but loans of any amount do not have to be declared.
Labour has refused to comment on reports that it may have received more than £10m in undeclared loans last year.
Details of the loans are expected when Mr Dromey reports on Tuesday about the results of his inquiry into the issue.
Former Labour deputy leader Roy Hattersley said he reacted with "horror" to the reports.
"It all demonstrates that the prime minister is too obsessed and too concerned with the world of money," Lord Hattersley told BBC Newsnight.
He said the association with such money cost votes, even if it was spent wisely on campaigning.
The prime minister said that of course Mr Dromey "should have known" about the cash.
But he pointed out that in law it is Labour's general secretary rather than its treasurer who has ultimate responsibility for the party's finances.
The changes proposed by Mr Blair also include appointing an independent figure to look into party funding.
They will discuss with other political parties issues ranging from limits on donations, declaration of all loans and "enhancing state funding".
The Conservatives welcomed the inquiry, saying the present finance arrangements were unsatisfactory.
The Electoral Commission urged all parties to declare details of their lenders.
The Lib Dems say they are already committed to declaring loans of more than £5,000 to the national party or of more than £1,000 to its local parties.
The public administration committee is to summon the three Labour Party donors in question to appear before members. They are also to ask Blair adviser and fundraiser Lord Levy to answer questions.
Tony Wright, Labour chair of the Commons Public Administration Committee, said there was a "loophole" which needed to be fixed: "Not for the first time in our public life it takes a scandal and a crisis to produce reform."
Earlier Constitutional Affairs Minister Harriet Harman - who is married to Mr Dromey - decided to give up her responsibilities for overseeing House of Lords reform to avoid any conflict of interest. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/c/cowdenbeath/8770216.stm | Colin Cameron has become Jimmy Nicholl's first signing, with the former Scotland midfielder being named player/assistant manager.
The manager told Cowden's website: "His main focus will be on the coaching side, but he will also be a very important player for us."
Cameron, 37, began his career under Nicholl with Raith Rovers.
He played for Hearts, Wolves, Millwall, Coventry and Milton Keynes Dons and was released by Dundee this summer.
Kirkcaldy-born Cameron ended an injury-hit, two-year spell at Dens Park on loan to Arbroath as they were relegated to Division Three.
But the former Scotland midfielder was part of the Rovers team, managed by Nicholl, that defeated Celtic in the League Cup final of 1995, winning a transfer to Hearts the following year.
Nicholl is still assessing his squad before adding further signings, with former Blue Brazil manager Danny Lennon having already raided Central Park to take three players with him to St Mirren.
"I have been delighted with the general fitness levels of the squad and have been very impressed with the quality on display," he said after the start of pre-season training.
"I'll see how many Danny is going to come back for, the magpie.
"You know the magpies come in and nick your jewellery and then take them back to their place.
"I'll wait until the magpie's finished with our players and see what he has left me with."
Left-back Peter Bradley became the latest departure last week even before becoming a first-team regular with Cowden.
He joined at St Mirren Park central defender Darren McGregor and forward Paul McQuade, who were both integral parts of the squad that won the Blue Brazil a second promotion in succession.
Winger Scott McBride also left the club, heading for one of Nicholl's former clubs, Raith Rovers. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/11484057 | A chimpanzee famous for smoking cigarettes has died at a South African zoo, aged 52.
Charlie the chimp started smoking when some visitors to Mangaung zoo, in Bloemfontein, threw him lit cigarettes.
Zoo spokesman Qondile Khedama said Charlie had become an institution, entertaining thousands of visitors every year with his antics.
An autopsy is being conducted to determine the cause of death.
For years, zookeepers had been trying to get the chimp to kick the habit, and they discouraged visitors from giving him cigarettes.
But Mr Khedama said he did not believe the addiction had ended Charlie's life prematurely, as he had lived around 10 years longer than the average chimp.
"He was on serious medications and in and out of the vet," he said.
"Even though he has been receiving special care, and a special diet including protein shakes, vitamin and mineral supplements, he succumbed to old age."
Charlie is not the only chimp to have picked up human bad habits.
In February, it was reported a Russian chimpanzee was being sent to rehab after he started pestering visitors for alcohol and cigarettes.
Mr Khedama said the zoo hopes to find a new companion for its female chimp, Judy.
But he said: "We realise it will be almost impossible to replace a character like Charlie." |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47662959 | Ride-hailing firm Uber will list on the New York Stock Exchange, according to reports, in one of the most anticipated stock debuts of the year.
The decision to opt for the Wall Street exchange over the tech-heavy Nasdaq was first reported by Bloomberg, citing sources.
It comes as smaller, ride-sharing rival Lyft prepares to list on the Nasdaq.
Uber is expected to launch its initial public offering (IPO) in April and may be valued as high as $120bn (£91.4bn).
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reports it would list on the New York Stock Exchange.
Other major technology companies including Google, Apple and Facebook trade on the Nasdaq.
But the New York Stock Exchange has secured some of world's biggest IPOs including Alibaba and General Motors.
Uber's IPO come as investors have shown strong appetite for new stock listings.
Shares in denim icon Levi Strauss surged on its return to the stock market after 34 years. The price shot higher immediately after Wall Street opened - and closed up 31.8% - valuing the company at $8.7bn.
Analysts said the success of the listing bodes well for investor appetite for other flotations planned this year, including Pinterest, Airbnb, Slack and Uber.
Uber has been controversial for disrupting the taxi industry in more than 60 countries.
It continues to face opposition from both private hire drivers and regulators in several jurisdictions.
The ride-hailing taxi app company has also faced legal action in the UK and US over its classification of drivers as self-employed contractors, rather than as workers.
A series of scandals dogged Uber in 2017, including sexual harassment claims made by female employees, data breaches, the use of illicit software to thwart government regulators, and the forced resignation of its chief executive Travis Kalanick. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45452161 | Georgian former boxing champion Avtandil Khurtsidze has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for working as the "chief enforcer" for an "elite" criminal enterprise.
He was convicted in June in New York of racketeering and wire fraud conspiracy.
Prosecutors said the 38-year-old boxer had "substantial influence" in the criminal underworld as part of a Soviet Union crime gang.
They said Khurtsidze used violence in service of the group's activities.
He and his associates, known as the Shulaya Enterprise, were blamed for crimes across the US including extortion, wire fraud, illegal gambling and operating a brothel in Brooklyn.
Many of the crew's activities were based in New York but they also operated in other major cities as well as abroad, a justice department statement said.
Officials say most of its members were born in the former Soviet Union, with strong ties to Georgia, where the boxer was born.
Khurtsidze was caught on film twice carrying out assaults, with prosecutors describing him as a "heavyweight enforcer" for the group's members and leadership.
He was also accused of participating in a complex fraud scheme to predict casino slot machines algorithms, which involved kidnapping a software engineer in Las Vegas in 2014.
On top of his decade federal jail sentence, the Georgian boxer was given two further years supervision on release.
"Thanks to our dedicated law enforcement partners around the globe, Khurtsidze's reign of extortion and violence has been halted," US attorney Geoffrey Berman said in a statement.
Khurtsidze held the interim WBO middleweight title in 2017.
His last professional fight was against British boxer Tommy Langford in April 2017, which he won.
A later bout against Billy Joe Sanders was cancelled after Khurtsidze was arrested along with more than 30 others in a swoop against the organised crime syndicate.
Following his conviction, his former promoter Lou DiBella criticised the boxer for squandering his career.
"He let many people down who believed in him, but no one more than himself. Just a waste, and it's all on him for choosing the dark side," Mr DiBella told ESPN. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8504086.stm | Clothing retailer Ethel Austin has gone into administration for the second time in two years.
The group's 276 stores will continue trading as normal while a new buyer is sought, administrators MCR said.
But MCR said it could not rule out closures or redundancies as there were "no guarantees" that a buyer could be found in the current economic climate.
Administrators blamed the move on failure to secure funding, compounded by poor trading in January.
Ethel Austin's sister company, homeware retailer Au Naturale, has also gone into administration.
Together, the two companies have 276 stores and employ more than 3,700 people. In the past year, Ethel Austin has taken over 12 empty shops formerly occupied by Woolworths - the biggest retail casualty of the recession.
"There is no doubt in our mind that the onset of the global economic crisis has hit the retail sector particularly hard," said Geoff Bouchier from MCR.
"As a consequence of this the companies have struggled to secure funders which in turn has impacted their ability to generate sales revenue."
Unusually, MCR said customers would still be able to redeem gift vouchers purchased before 8 February, but only to pay for up to half of any transaction.
Usually when a company goes into administration, those with gift cards are deemed to be unsecured creditors and have to try and claim their money back from the administrators.
Customers will still be able to exchange unwanted goods bought within the last 28 days, but no refunds will be given, MCR said.
Those who have bought goods but not yet received them will need to put in a claim as an unsecured creditor. Those who paid by credit or visa debit cards may be able to get their money back from their card issuer.
The Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw) said it was already working with the administrators to secure staff employment.
"Today's announcement is terrible news for the loyal and hard-working staff who now face a period of uncertainty surrounding their future," said John Gorle, Usdaw national officer.
Despite the fact the recession is now over in the UK, analysts say the outlook for the retail sector remains bleak.
"2010 will be tough. The only consensus is that no-one knows what will happen," said Mark Hudson at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
"However, most think it will not be pretty, with risk on the downside. Retailers we've spoken to have all said the same - performance will be slow but steady until summer, then all bets are off until the first budget post the election."
Ethel Austin started more than 75 years ago in Liverpool. Its head office is in Knowsley, Merseyside, where it employs 401 staff.
The company first went into administration in 2008, but was bought within a month by the former head of retailer MK One. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7967908.stm | MTV has the edge over YouTube for music, but for how much longer?
A higher percentage of 15-24 year olds in the UK have watched a music video on YouTube than on dedicated music channels, according to a new study.
The report found that 57% of 15-24 year olds watched music on YouTube, compared to 56% watching them on TV.
However, TV still has a commanding lead when it comes to adults as a whole.
The survey also found that half of all adults who watched a YouTube music video went on to buy music released by that artist.
The study, by market research firm Ipsos MediaCT, looked at the viewing habits of more than 1500 people, across the United Kingdom, in March 2009.
It found that double the number of 15-24 year olds were using YouTube to watch music videos, compared to other age groups. This percentage rose even more for those still in education, with 69% using the music channels on YouTube.
Television still has the edge when it comes to children. Or at least, families with children aged 10-15.
48% of these families have watched a music video on TV compared with 39% having watched music videos on YouTube.
Speaking to the BBC, Ipsos' head of entertainment research, Ian Bramley, said that TV music channels may have to rethink their position.
"There is a significant shift in the way the youngest adult age group watches its music videos. One would think this age group would stick with watching music videos online as they get older.
"TV music channels are doing very well, but they need to look at exactly who is actually watching their channel. It's probably not who they think their target market is.
"There may be a case, when we do this again, that the market starts to fragment and that TV music channels will need to reposition themselves for an older market," added Mr Bramley.
The survey also looked at what people do as a result of watching a YouTube video. It found that 50% of adult users then go on to purchase music, although the majority (36%) buy a CD, rather than a paid for digital download (15%). Another 7% go on to buy concert tickets.
Among the 15-24 age bracket, the difference becomes more pronounced, with 45% opting for a CD/DVD and 19% buying music via a digital download service.
The public's perception of the ongoing dispute between YouTube and the PRS for Music (formerly known as the Performing Rights Society) was also surveyed.
At the beginning of March 2009, YouTube started to remove all premium music videos after failing to reach a new licensing agreement with the PRS.
47% of adults surveyed though YouTube was right to take this action, with 28% of those surveyed opposed to the move. Another 25% said they either didn't know enough about the issue or were unsure what the right decision should have been. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/science-environment-43185638/wearable-tech-could-help-stroke-patients-with-recovery | Wearable technology for stroke patients Jump to media player US scientists are developing wearable sensors to speed up the recovery of stroke patients.
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In the US, scientists are developing wearable sensors to speed up the recovery of stroke patients.
The sensors are able to send information to doctors continuously.
The team that is developing the system says it could allow therapists to closely monitor the effectiveness of their therapies. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-21320346 | Shot Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai has described how a fund has been set up in her name to help all children get an education.
Malala, 15, was speaking in an interview recorded before surgery at a Birmingham hospital on Saturday.
She was shot on a school bus in October in Pakistan by the Taliban after campaigning for girls' rights.
Surgeons at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital said Malala was recovering "very well" from the latest operation.
A bullet was removed from her head by surgeons in Pakistan, before she was flown to the UK for further treatment.
Malala was discharged as an inpatient from Queen Elizabeth Hospital in January and underwent a five-hour operation at the weekend to fit a titanium plate over her damaged skull.
She also had a cochlear implant fitted to deal with some deafness caused by her injuries.
Speaking in the video in English, Malala said she wanted to "serve the people".
She said: "Today you can see that I'm alive. I can speak, I can see you, I can see everyone and today I can speak and I'm getting better day by day.
"It's just because of the prayers of people, because all the people - men, women, children - all of them have prayed for me.
"Because of these prayers, God has given me this new life and this is a second life.
"I want to serve the people and I want every girl, every child, to be educated and for that reason we have organised the Malala Fund."
She also made her comments in Urdu and Pashtu.
The Taliban said it attacked the campaigner for girls' education for "promoting secularism".
The first grant from the Malala Fund will go to an organisation in the teenager's home region of the Swat Valley in Pakistan and it aims to encourage girls to go to school instead of going straight into work.
Those behind the project said it would help enrol selected girls into schools and give them the support to continue with their studies.
Media captionConsultant neurosurgeon, Anwen White: "She was very focused and enthusiastic."
It is also expected to work with families to understand the importance of education for their daughters.
The Malala Fund has been set up by international organisation Vital Voices, which says it helps give women a voice to promote prosperity and peace in their communities.
A message on the organisation's website said: "We established the Malala Fund on behalf of Malala and her family, working together with supporters of the cause, including the United Nations Foundation and Girl Up, and within a community of supportive organisations and individuals, to realise Malala's vision of education for all girls."
In a news conference on Monday, the Birmingham hospital's medical director Dr Dave Rosser said everything had gone "very well" in Saturday's operation and said the teenager's condition was continuing to improve.
He said: "She went back to the intensive care unit that evening, primarily as a precautionary measure rather than because of any major concerns and she's now back on one of the wards in the hospital and doing very well."
Consultant neurosurgeon Anwen White said she now did not expect Malala to have to undergo any further surgery.
Mrs White added that Malala remained "a very happy, very enthusiastic young woman". |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-41669771 | The sister of a kayaker whose body was found after a major search operation has backed a safety initiative for other kayakers by the RNLI.
Dominic Jackson, 35, was reported missing after leaving from Portsoy in Aberdeenshire in early February.
His kayak was found near Lybster in Caithness and his body was later found in the same area.
Ellie Jackson is calling on kayakers to keep their phone somewhere they can access it quickly at sea.
Mr Jackson - originally from Uckfield in East Sussex but who later moved to Fettercairn in Aberdeenshire - was wearing a buoyancy aid.
However, he was unable to call for help when he got into difficulty because his phone was stored in his kayak in a place he could not access while paddling.
His sister said: "Dom was always adventurous and very fit so was keen to take up sea kayaking.
"It was very hard to know that he was out there somewhere and there was nothing I could do about getting him back.
"I will be forever grateful to the brave and wonderful people who helped to find him.
"I wouldn't want anyone else to go through what our family have been through.
"I want people to learn from Dom's death and understand that taking a few extra steps before going on the water can make the difference between life and death."
RNLI community safety manager Jon Oxenham said: "We are very grateful to have Ellie's support with our safety campaign to try and prevent kayakers from getting into the potentially life-threatening situation of being in the water but having no way of calling for help.
"Our lifeboat volunteers and lifeguards are there to help, but we can't come to the rescue if we don't know you're in trouble."
He explained: "Our advice for kayakers is to always carry a means of calling for help, and keep it on you at all times when you're kayaking.
"This means that if you capsize and get into trouble, you can call for help and increase your chances of survival.
"Remember also to wear a personal floatation device (buoyancy aid) and check the weather and tides before you go out.
"Tell someone where you are going and when you expect to be back, and get the appropriate training or experience so you can enjoy your time on the water and stay safe." |
https://www.bbc.com/news/education-31876338 | Children who lead inactive lives are likely to grow up to become middle-aged couch potatoes, a study suggests.
Researchers compared the TV viewing habits of more than 6,000 British people born in a single week in 1970, at the ages of 10 and 42.
Parents should increase children's physical activity to ensure they become fit and healthy adults, the University College London authors conclude.
"Do something active to displace TV," advised co-author Lee Smith.
"In the evening time when families tend to sit down and watch TV they should try to go for walks instead.
"If you can't go outside, try active computer games, anything that gets people up and expending energy rather than sitting down and snacking," said Dr Smith, of the UCL epidemiology and public health department.
The authors acknowledge that for today's children TV viewing is often replaced by time on computers, smartphones or tablets.
But Dr Smith stressed the issues are the same, that computers and phones are "just a different way of sitting down and relaxing", and parents need to encourage children to be more active.
The study draws the British Cohort Study, which gathers information on the economic circumstances, health, physical, educational and social development of people born in England, Scotland and Wales in 1970.
When they were 10, their parents were asked how often the children watched TV and played sport.
Their height and weight were recorded, as were their parents' occupations.
At age 42 they were asked how much time they spent watching TV and on a range of physical activities and sports.
They were also asked to assess their health and weight.
The study shows that the children who watched a lot of TV aged 10 were 42% more likely to spend more than three hours a day in front of the screen as adults than those who watched relatively little television in childhood.
The 42-year-olds who watched TV for at least three hours a day were more likely to be in only "fair" or "poor" health and to rate themselves as either overweight or obese.
They were also more likely to have had fathers who were overweight and in routine or manual jobs.
The sons and daughters of manual workers were twice as likely as managers' children to watch more than three hours of TV a day at 42, even after their own educational qualifications had been taken into account.
Parents who are manual workers "are more likely to be physically active at work and may compensate for this by spending more time sitting down during their leisure hours", suggests another of the researchers, Dr Mark Hamer.
"Their children may then model their mothers' and fathers' leisure activity patterns.
"It is important that children keep active. And if they can be encouraged to participate in sports, so much the better."
The authors believe this is the first study to use a large, representative birth cohort to correlate childhood and adult TV viewing habits and health.
"Our work indicates that parents' health-related behaviours may at least partly influence children's TV viewing habits more than three decades later," said Dr Hamer. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7518678.stm | A suicide bomber has blown himself up in the Afghan capital, Kabul, wounding three people, Afghan officials say.
The attack happened close to Babur's Gardens, containing the tomb of the founder of the Mughal empire.
One report said the bomber was on foot and he detonated his explosives when he saw a security checkpoint.
Afghanistan has seen a sharp increase in violence recently. Taleban militants recently vowed to step up their attacks in the capital.
Afghan officials said three civilians riding in a minibus were wounded in Tuesday's attack.
Earlier this month, a suicide bomber rammed a car full of explosives into the gates of the Indian embassy in the Afghan capital, killing 41 people and injuring 141.
Five embassy personnel were killed - India's defence attache, a senior diplomat and two security guards - as well as an Afghan man.
It was the deadliest attack in Kabul since the overthrow of the Taleban in 2001. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-sussex-45409553 | The son of Levellers drummer Charlie Heather may have been confused about the direction of traffic when he stepped out in front of a bus, his family has said.
Alfie Harbord 15, died from a head injury after the accident in Marine Parade, Brighton, on 24 February.
At an inquest a coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death.
Mr Heather said Alfie had recently been in Italy, where traffic approached from the left.
In a statement his family said: "We don't know why Alfie stepped into the road when he did, but it has occurred to us that [he] had been in Italy on a family holiday the week before and possibly he was anticipating the oncoming traffic coming from the left... rather than the right."
The inquest in Brighton heard that Alfie, described by his teachers as "a gentleman and a scholar", had been drinking with friends in the city before the accident, shortly after midnight.
Toxicology tests showed a "high" blood-alcohol level of 242mg per 100ml. The drink-drive limit is 80mg.
Alfie's friend, who was with him, gave a statement to the inquest, saying Alfie "broke free" at a crossing and said: "Come on. We can run back."
The teenager was struck by a bus on the westbound carriageway of the seafront road and died in the Royal Sussex County Hospital less than an hour later.
The hearing was told that accident investigators believed the time between Alfie stepping off the kerb and the point of impact was 1.82 seconds and there was nothing the driver could have done to avoid a collision.
The coroner, Veronica Hamilton-Deeley, recorded a verdict of accidental death and said alcohol was a contributory factor "which may well have affected Alfie's judgement".
Mr Heather, a musician in the folk-rock band, shook bus driver Nicholas Paul's hand and said: "I have no animosity or blame; I am sorry it happened to you and we hope you recover from this awful experience."
After the verdict, Mr Heather and Alfie's mother, Jill Harbord, issued a statement saying their son had not been permitted to take alcohol with him on the night out.
They described him as "a bright, intelligent and popular boy". |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-35217671 | A woman's body has been found after a house fire in south Belfast.
Police were called to the blaze in Archdale Drive in the Belvoir Estate shortly after 14:00 GMT on Sunday.
The woman, believed to be in her 50s, was discovered in the property.
A post-mortem will be carried out and an investigation into the fire, and the death, is underway. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/devon/7578935.stm | Hundreds of people turned out today for Cornwall's first ever gay pride parade.
More than 600 people took part in the march, designed to promote diversity, with many more lining the streets of the city to watch the spectacle.
Devon and Cornwall Police were among the many local supporters of the event, and the Gay Police Association flag was flying at Truro Police Station.
The event started at 1100 BST and featured stalls, dancers, singers and comedy acts.
The parade - which had a theatrical theme - made its way through Truro City Centre starting at Lemon Quay and ending at Victoria Park.
Organisers say there has been so much support they want to make it an annual event.
Chairman Christian Diamant said: "I could never have expected this to be as colourful and had the reception it has.
"They (the crowd) were cheerful, they were amazed, they were intrigued and that's the whole point of Pride.
"We got a good message across and people had a good time."
As well as the parade there is a musical event in the city on Saturday night. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8011625.stm | The military parade to mark the 60th anniversary of China's navy is not just a chance for the Chinese to celebrate.
It is also a reminder that China is now an important naval power - and will become more important in the future.
Its military leaders openly admit that they want to build bigger, better warships for missions far away from the country's coastal waters.
But despite improvements in recent years, analysts say China's navy is still not able to compete with the world's leading powers.
"In no way is the Chinese navy on a par with the United States - or even Japan," said Bates Gill, an expert on the Chinese military.
There is no doubt that China has been building up its navy to cope with new threats and a changing political landscape.
China used to focus its military spending on its land forces, to counter potential problems from Russia, India and Vietnam.
As those land-based threats have receded, new areas of possible conflict have emerged at sea.
China has become more assertive in its aim to establish its sovereignty claims over a string of islands to its east and south.
This has led to arguments with, among others, Japan and Taiwan, a self-governing island that China says must be reunited with the mainland.
China also has to consider the US, the region's pre-eminent naval power and Taiwan's main source of military and diplomatic support.
"This has placed huge demands on China to focus on its maritime capabilities in a way that it has not been asked to do before," said Mr Gill, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
China is also keen to use its navy to project its power further abroad, particularly to protect the country's trade routes.
This is made clear in the country's latest report on its military forces, entitled China's National Defence and published at the end of last year.
"The navy has been striving to gradually develop its capabilities of conducting co-operation in distant waters," the report says.
China despatched a small flotilla to the Gulf of Aden in December to join an international effect to combat piracy, particularly off Somalia.
Analysts see this as evidence of China's willingness to operate in waters far from home - and its ability to do so.
To carry out these missions China wants bigger and better warships, a point made by the navy's commander-in-chief, Admiral Wu Shengli, last week.
China seems particularly keen to have an aircraft carrier - a warship that has symbolic power as well as practical uses.
There has been intense speculation over recent months that Beijing will soon announce its intention to develop its first aircraft carrier.
It is an issue touched upon in the US Pentagon's annual report to Congress, published recently, about China's military capabilities.
The report says that China has an aircraft carrier research and design programme, and is interested in buying carrier-borne aircraft from Russia.
But at the moment China does not have such a vessel, despite the great strides made by the navy over the last 10-15 years.
The Chinese navy managed to circumnavigate the globe only in 2002, nearly 100 years after the US Great White Fleet completed the same task.
Andrew Yang, chairman of the Chinese Council for Advanced Policy Studies in Taiwan, said Chinese ships were mostly inferior to US ships.
He said China had just two advanced Type 051C destroyers, which are fitted with cutting-edge air defence missile systems.
Mr Yang added: "These ships are not combat proven. We don't know how capable the Chinese navy is, even if they have the weapons."
But perhaps all this misses the point of this week's naval parade.
As military analyst Dennis J Blasko makes clear in a recent article, this show of force will in itself act as a deterrent.
"The mission of the Chinese armed forces is not only to be prepared to fight wars, but also to deter or prevent their outbreak," he wrote. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-43070586 | A cross-party group of politicians are pushing ahead with a bid to review whether the UK can unilaterally withdraw its Article 50 notification.
Prime Minister Theresa May triggered Article 50 last year, committing the UK to leaving the EU in March 2019.
Last week, the politicians went to court to seek permission to go to the European Court of Justice for a ruling on whether Brexit could be called off.
A judge at the Court of Session refused to allow their action to proceed.
Labour MEPs David Martin and Catherine Stihler, SNP MEP Alyn Smith and Scottish Green MSPs Andy Wightman and Ross Greer are now appealing against Lord Doherty's decision.
The judge had rejected their initial application for a judicial review, saying that the group's "prospect of success falls very far short".
The judge said that "given that neither parliament nor the government has any wish to withdraw the notification", the question whether or not it could be done unilaterally "is hypothetical and academic".
Lord Doherty said the UK parliament had not proposed withdrawing the UK's Article 50 notification and government policy was not in conflict with the legislative will of parliament.
He added: "In those circumstances it is not a matter which this court, or the Court of Justice of the European Union, require to adjudicate upon".
During a brief hearing at the Court of Session on Thursday, a new hearing was fixed for Wednesday 21 February when three judges will hear the challenge to Lord Doherty's ruling.
Lord Drummond Young said: "It is important to bear in mind what we are concerned with is not the substance of the application but with permission to proceed." |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-34408533 | In fashion, few trends last long but Ralph Lauren's designs have made his brand an icon.
The designer, who has stepped down as head of the company he founded, is best known for the colourful collared shirts and knit sweaters that became part of the classic American wardrobe.
Mr Lauren, who turns 76 in October, has turned the company that bears his name into a $7.5bn (£5bn) business. He will stay on as chief designer.
He has said his style is modelled after the clothing worn at America's Ivy League colleges.
In his biography he wrote: "I loved the oldness, the custom mood of navy blazers, school crests, rep ties, flannels, and saddle shoes."
To make his label global he translated a style often favoured by older white men into a look for everyone.
It was his 1989 knit sweater featuring a US flag that accomplished this. The sweater would become a top seller and the American flag featuring his initials instead of stars was used as the company's logo for a range of products.
Ten years later he doubled down on his reverence for the American flag, donating $13m (£8.5m) to a Smithsonian museum to help preserve the flag that inspired the country's national anthem.
Mr Lauren counts several of America's biggest celebrities among his friends. Kanye West in particular has established a close relationship with the designer and helped make the label popular among the hip hop star's legions of fans.
Having celebrities wear his styles off and on the red carpet also helped make the brand cool. Beyonce, Pharrell Williams, Gwyneth Paltrow and Taylor Swift are all fans.
Though many associate the Polo Ralph Lauren brand with the cotton collared shirts featuring a pony mounted, mallet-swinging player, Mr Lauren began the Polo brand with ties.
The ties were sold successfully at New York department store Bloomingdales encouraging him to release a full menswear line a year later.
In 1971 he followed up with a line of tailored suits for women and soon after released his iconic, colourful, short-sleeved polo shirts that would become the brand's signature look.
The first Polo Ralph Lauren store opened in Beverly Hills, California, in 1971 and the first international location opened in London's West End in 1981.
Despite being known for his luxury designs, Mr Lauren came from humble beginnings.
Born in the Bronx, New York to Jewish parents, he changed his name from Ralph Lifshitz to Ralph Lauren at 16.
The young Lauren did not start out with any ambition to be a fashion designer. He was working for Brooks Brothers as a salesman when the desire to create his own line of neck-ties struck.
In its 48-year history, the company has gone far beyond runway fashion.
Mr Lauren opened RL Restaurant in Chicago in 1999, followed by ones in Paris and New York. The Ralph Lauren Company includes home goods and fragrance brands.
As a designer he has also embraced sports. The company has sponsored and designed outfits worn by golfers, tennis players and Olympians.
Polo Ralph Lauren was the first label to sponsor Wimbledon in 2006. The brand redesigned the uniforms worn by the ball boys and girls and the judges.
The brand also designed the Team USA uniforms for the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games.
These events have enabled the brand to represent the American look on a world stage and incorporate some of the preppy design elements Polo Ralph Lauren is known for.
As the icon prepares to step down as CEO, questions circulate about the impact his successor Stefan Larsson will have.
Mr Larsson is known for increasing sales at low-end retailers Old Navy and H&M.
And with the luxury industry struggling, shareholders have welcomed his appointment. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47817530 | Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel has apologised for the kidnapping of thousands of children born to mixed-race couples during colonial rule in Burundi, DR Congo and Rwanda.
The "métis" children born to Belgian settlers and local women were forcibly taken to Belgium and fostered by Catholic orders and other institutions.
About 20,000 children are believed to have been affected.
Most fathers refused to acknowledge the paternity of their children.
The children were born in the 1940s and 1950s and taken to Belgium from 1959 until the independence of each of the three colonies.
Some of the children never received Belgian nationality and remained stateless.
Speaking in the Belgian parliament, Mr Michel said the country had breached the children's basic human rights, seeing them as a threat to the colonial system.
It had, he said, stripped them of their identity, stigmatised them and split up siblings.
"I vow that this solemn moment will represent a further step towards awareness and recognition of this part of our national history," he said in his statement.
Many of the mixed-race children had gone on to help Belgium become a "more open and tolerant society", the prime minister added.
He also expressed Belgian compassion for the "African mothers whose children were snatched from them".
Two years ago, the Catholic Church apologised for its role in the scandal.
Meanwhile, their mothers have also been searching for their children.
The groups miXed2020 and Métis de Belgique say many of the kidnapped children "suffered deeply" as a result of their experience.
Many still had no access to birth records and remained unable to find their mothers or their Belgian fathers, who, the groups said, were often well-known figures.
Georges Kamanayo, one of the children who were taken to Belgium, said Mr Michel's apology was the "ultimate recognition of an injustice".
"We have felt like third-rate Belgians for a long time," he told daily newspaper De Standaard.
"In the colony we were set apart from the white children. It was pure segregation. We tried to immerse ourselves in Belgium, so we wouldn't stand out."
He added: "In Belgium we always react a little slower, other countries have preceded us."
Belgian colonial rule of Congo was particularly brutal when it was known as Congo Free State between 1885 and 1908. An estimated 10 million Africans lost their lives when King Leopold II ran the country, now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo, as his own fiefdom.
Last month, the UN's Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent told Belgium to apologise for atrocities committed during its colonial era.
Racial discrimination was "endemic" in Belgian institutions, the UN experts said in a report.
"The root causes of present day human rights violations lie in the lack of recognition of the true scope of violence and injustice of colonisation," their report added.
Mr Michel did not respond to the UN report, Belgian media reported.
However, in parliament he said his apology to the kidnapped mixed-race children must also strengthen efforts to fight all forms of discrimination and racism in the country. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4424194.stm | The latest Harry Potter movie, The Goblet of Fire, has received mixed early reviews from critics.
It is the fourth film adaptation of JK Rowling's book series and the first to have a UK director - Mike Newell.
US entertainment magazine Variety said the "excellent" film was "the darkest Potter yet" with "a climactic scene that does not disappoint".
But Screen Daily said the "solid but mostly uninspired" movie only raised "wonder and dread" in its final scenes.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire sees Potter and fellow students from wizard school Hogwarts take part in the Triwizard Tournament, an annual competition involving a series of dangerous challenges.
Lead characters Harry, Ron and Hermione - played by Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson - must also face teenage angst and the spectre of an old villain.
"Film-makers keep the narrative screws fastened tight, which gives The Goblet of Fire an intensity that rarely flags," said Variety reviewer Todd McCarthy.
"Newell tries to find the emotional reality in material that, until now, has been used more to showcase fantasy and wonder."
Variety said Radcliffe "rises to the occasion with a more dimensional and nuanced performance as Harry" which "suggests for the first time there actually may be an actor in him".
It added that the movie was "intense enough" to justify its more restrictive UK and US rating, compared with the movie saga's first three instalments.
"Ralph Fiennes makes the series' villain-of-villains a distinctive monster, remorseless and cunning, in a climactic scene that does not disappoint and will, like the dragon, prove frightening to impressionable youngsters," Variety added.
The Hollywood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt called the film "the best one yet", adding that it "feels much more intimate" than the previous offerings.
He said the film's handling of the relationship between Harry and Cho Chang (Katie Leung) was "hesitant" but said the confrontation between the young wizard and an old nemesis "does not disappoint".
"Newell achieves the same brilliant production values of his predecessors," said Honeycutt.
"Along with the brooding and at times ominous look by designer Stuart Craig and cinematographer Roger Pratt, Patrick Doyle contributes the best musical score of the series, one richly symphonic yet with a pop overlay that reminds us we are in a world of fantasy."
Writing for The Times website, James Christopher gave the film a positive review but awarded it only three stars out of five.
"What's fresh about the Goblet of Fire is the intriguing tension between the feeble and the strong," he writes. "For the first time we sense what makes Harry tick under pressure."
He praised Newell's direction, saying: "His considerable triumph is to keep the thrills up to exhilarating scratch."
However, the length of JK Rowling's book meant large chunks of the original story have been omitted from the movie.
"The Dursleys are sadly missing," said The Times website, "but one can't have everything."
But Screen Daily reviewer Tim Grierson was unimpressed.
"Harry Potter and the Goblet Of Fire is neither as singular a film as director Alfonso Cuaron's third instalment nor as kid-pleasing as Chris Columbus's first two entries," he said.
"The new feature is unlikely to enjoy the same strong reviews as its predecessor, but will benefit from a voracious and large fan base - despite the darker tone and higher certificate ratings."
Screen Daily said Newell "feels more confident than his predecessors with Hogwarts' British humour" but "is not wholly successful at juggling the book's myriad new characters, subplots, and tonal changes".
"Unfortunately for a film that runs longer than two-and-a-half hours, it's a bit of a slog to Goblet's strongest material, which resides in the last 45 minutes or so."
In her BBC News website review, entertainment reporter Keily Oakes said it was "certainly darker" than previous instalments and that the confidence of its lead actors had "grown with age".
"Newell has created a polished movie. It will delight existing Potter fans, but, like the later books, it could be too hard for a new audience to follow the complex storylines this far into the series," she said. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/devon/4120394.stm | Paignton Zoo has been forced to take drastic action to keep some of the animals cool during the heatwave.
The soaring temperatures across the region have affected the animals as well as the public.
As a result it is not only the visitors who have been enjoying the ice lollies - a number of the animals have been given them as well.
Among the beneficiaries are the monkeys and the elephants who are being given frozen fruit juice.
Philip Knowling, from the zoo, said: "The elephants occasionally get a big block of frozen fruit juices and water in hot weather.
"Well, all the visitors to Paignton Zoo have ice lollies, so why not the elephants?" |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-46648710 | Image caption Rosanne Cash performed at the 54th Cambridge Folk Festival in the summer.
The group behind the Cambridge Folk Festival has been given a £750,000 bailout from taxpayers.
Cambridge City Council will take over the day-to-day running of Cambridge Live after the charity ran into financial difficulties.
Cambridge Live was set up by the council in 2014 to run the Cambridge Corn Exchange, Cambridge Folk Festival and the Big Weekend.
The council said it was "business as usual" and all tickets remained valid.
Cambridge Live flagged up its financial struggles in June, when councillors agreed a £500,000 support package to keep it afloat and formulate a new business plan.
Anna Smith, the Labour-run council's deputy leader, said a further £250,000 would be set aside to ensure Cambridge Live was "on a strong footing" and to cover the practicalities of transferring staff and services, which is expected to be complete by April.
Ms Smith said: "Sadly, after much hard work with Cambridge Live it became apparent that they were not going to be able to meet their financial targets. This is why we have stepped in now."
She acknowledged there would be an extra cost to taxpayers but said officers would find the money in the budget "in a sensible way".
The full 2019 programme, including Corn Exchange shows, the Cambridge Folk Festival, the Big Weekend and other events, would continue as planned, the council said.
Political opponents have called the cost of the bail-out "epic".
Tim Bick, leader of the Liberal Democrat group on the council, said: "The vast majority of Cambridge Live's business has been to deliver on commissions for the council, so it is incredible that the council has let the costs of an emergency rescue get to this dizzying level before taking action."
The 2018 Cambridge Folk Festival attracted more than 14,000 people over its four days. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/n/nottm_forest/8661900.stm | Nottingham Forest have completed the permanent signing of Polish midfielder Radoslaw Majewski on a three-year deal.
The Reds agreed a fee of £1m for the Polonia Warsaw player, who has been on a season-long loan at the City Ground.
Majewski, 23, has been an influential figure in the club's push for promotion from the Championship and manager Billy Davies was desperate to keep him.
Davies said: "He's an excellent young player and at his age and with his ability, will only get better."
Majewski, who has made 34 starts and scored four goals, had been linked with several Premier League clubs after an impressive first season in England.
And Davies had begged the Forest board to complete a permanent deal before the end of the season. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-36049158 | Brazil's Supreme Court has rejected a government injunction aimed at preventing an impeachment vote against President Dilma Rousseff.
Ms Rousseff, who says her opponents are plotting a "coup", faces claims she manipulated government accounts.
She has vowed to fight to "the last minute" despite the desertion of three allied parties ahead of Sunday's vote in the lower house of parliament.
The Supreme Court made its decision in an extraordinary session.
The impeachment debate in the lower house of parliament is due to start later on Friday and continue until Sunday's vote. If two-thirds of MPs vote for impeachment, the motion will pass to the Senate.
An impeachment vote would pave the way for Ms Rousseff to be removed from office.
Thursday's injunction to suspend the vote was filed by Attorney General Jose Eduardo Cardozo who claimed that alleged procedural failings had violated the president's right to a defence.
Seven of 10 justices voted to reject the motion even before the Supreme Court session had finished.
Where did it all go wrong for Rousseff?
What has gone wrong in Brazil?
The Progressive Party (PP), which quit the coalition on Tuesday, says most of its 47 MPs would vote for the impeachment, and the Republican Party (PRB) said its 22 members had been told to vote in favour.
The move comes weeks after the PMDB, the largest party in the lower house, voted to leave the coalition. The PMDB's leader in the lower house, Leonardo Picciani, said on Thursday that 90% of the party's members would vote to impeach Ms Rousseff.
MPs from her own Workers' Party are said to be increasingly despondent about Sunday's vote.
The allegations, which Ms Rousseff denies, are that she juggled the accounts to make her government's economic performance appear better than it was, ahead of her election campaign two years ago.
The president's supporters say the issue is not valid grounds for impeachment.
On Tuesday, Ms Rousseff seemed to suggest that her Vice-President, Michel Temer, was one of the ringleaders of the "coup" attempt against her.
She said a widely distributed audio message of Mr Temer appearing to accept replacing her as president was evidence of the conspiracy. However, she did not identify him by name.
Brazil is "living in strange times", she said, "times of a coup, of farce and betrayal".
MPs are due to start debating on Friday, with voting beginning on Sunday at about 14:00 (17:00 GMT). The result should be known later in the evening.
Security is expected to be stepped up around the Congress building in Brasilia as the vote takes place.
While President Rousseff's opponents say the impeachment is supported by most Brazilians, the president's supporters have labelled it a flagrant power grab by her political enemies.
If the president and Mr Temer were both suspended from office, the next in line to assume the presidency would be lower house speaker Eduardo Cunha.
However, he is facing money-laundering and other charges.
Lower house vote: An impeachment vote is expected in the lower house on Sunday. A two-thirds majority is required for it to go forward to the Senate.
Senate vote on trial: If Ms Rousseff case is sent to the Senate, a simple majority is enough to suspend her for up to 180 days while she is put on trial. Vice-President Michel Temer would step in during this period.
Impeachment vote: For Ms Rousseff to be removed from office permanently, two-thirds of the Senate would have to vote in favour. Mr Temer would remain president for an interim period should this happen. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/hampshire/4770079.stm | A new non-emergency number to replace 999 for reporting low-level crime goes live on Monday for the first time.
Hampshire Constabulary is the first force to use the 101 number but the system will be will be available across England and Wales by 2008.
It is designed to ease the pressure on the 999 system by taking calls about issues like anti-social behaviour.
Leicester and Rutland County, Cardiff, Northumbria and Sheffield will also run pilot schemes through the summer.
Callers to the 101 line will be charged a flat fee of 10p from both mobiles and landlines.
A Hampshire Police spokeswoman said: "The service is designed to improve the delivery of non-emergency services by ensuring a better co-ordinated response by local agencies, freeing up the 999 service to handle emergency incidents."
The government said the new number would allow 999 services to be faster and more efficient.
Minister Hazel Blears said 10 million 999 calls had been made in 2004, of which 70% were not emergencies.
Operators will be able to transfer calls to 999 if deemed appropriate. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-12266266 | Domestic abuse levels reported over the festive period are a "badge of shame" for Scotland, according to police.
The rate of incidents recorded by police forces across the country in December has been released by the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU).
A total of 4,783 incidents of abuse, about 154 each day, were reported.
The figures were recorded as part of a VRU anti-violence campaign, which runs in December and January. A final set of figures will be issued in February.
Ch Insp Graham Goulden, who heads the unit's campaign, said: "We know that Christmas is a peak period for domestic abuse, but these figures are a disgrace, and a badge of shame for Scotland.
"The tragic thing is we are only half way through the campaign."
The campaign was promoted through December using an online advent calendar, posters and Bluetooth messages.
Police also monitored victims and offenders and held awareness raising days.
Ch Insp Goulden added: "We wanted to highlight the fact that for many victims, domestic abuse isn't a one-off event, it happens day in, day out.
"It would be fantastic if, as a nation, we could make a new year's resolution to end domestic abuse. We cannot and should not tolerate this sort of behaviour in 21st Century Scotland. It is totally unacceptable." |
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/stories-47720808/drag-queen-story-time-connecting-kids-with-lgbtq-role-models-of-colour | ‘Nigeria is as gay as any other country’ Jump to media player How a British-Nigerian man finally realised his dream of becoming a professional drag queen.
Drag artist The Nightbus took part in a Drag Queen Story Time event at the Homotopia Festival in Liverpool, an event that celebrates LGBT+ arts and culture.
By telling her stories, The Nightbus wants people to know how important it is for children to connect with LGBT role models of colour.
A BBC Stories and BBC North West co-commission.
Additional filming by Kaleigh Watterson.
Executive produced by Karlene Pinnock. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47732043 | Slowly, gently even, young soldiers scrape away the dirt of decades from human bones. Tangled with the remains are shreds of cloth and the soles of shoes.
They're uncovering a little-known chapter of the Holocaust on a construction site in western Belarus.
The mass grave was discovered as building work began on an elite apartment block.
Since then, specially trained soldiers have unearthed the remains of more than 1,000 Jews, killed when the city of Brest was occupied by Nazi Germany.
"There are clear bullet holes in the skulls," says Dmitry Kaminsky.
His military team usually searches for the bones of Soviet soldiers. Here they have removed the small skulls of teenagers instead, and a female skeleton with the remains of a baby, as if she'd been cradling it.
People were shot in the back of the head and all the bodies were lying face down. The Nazis dug ditches and people were shot, then fell; shot, then fell"
Before World War Two, almost half the 50,000-strong population of Brest were Jews.
Up to 5,000 men were executed shortly after the German invasion in June 1941.
Those left were later crammed into a ghetto: several blocks of the city centre surrounded by barbed wire.
In October 1942, the order came to wipe them out.
They were herded on to freight trains and driven over 100km (62 miles) to a forest.
At Bronnaya Gora, thousands were led to the edge of a vast pit and shot.
It's thought the grave discovered within the old ghetto includes those who managed to hide at first, only to be rooted out.
"When my parents returned, the city was half empty," Mikhail Kaplan says, flicking through black and white snapshots at his kitchen table.
His mother and father only escaped the massacre because they were away when the Germans overran Brest. Mikhail's photographs are of aunts, uncles and cousins who were all killed.
"My father never spoke about what happened, it was too painful. But my grandmother cried all the time remembering Lizochka, Lizochka," he recalls, reaching for a photograph picture of his Aunt Liza dressed up for a night out with friends.
After the war, though, Mikhail says the Jewish massacre was not commemorated.
"Everyone knew what had happened, but no-one spoke of it officially," he says. "The Germans destroyed us, deliberately. The Soviets just stayed silent."
Even now, the only Holocaust museum in Brest is a room in a basement, curated and run by the small Jewish community that settled in the city after its liberation.
The displays include the miracle stories of the handful of ghetto survivors who hid beneath false floors or behind walls in their houses for months.
There's also a city register kept by the Germans. On 15 October 1942 it records 17,893 Jews in Brest. The next day, that figure is scratched out.
"That's how we know when the ghetto was liquidated," community leader Efim Basin explains.
He had suspected that workers would find some bodies at the construction site, but never so many.
"This only underlines how little we know about our history," he adds.
Efim has been exploring the archives over the years, working to correct that. But witness testimonies are limited. And the fate of the Jews in Belarus has always been merged with the catastrophic losses suffered overall under occupation.
"Officials would repeat the mantra 'Never forget!' about the dead, but the Jewish part was hushed up," Efim recalls. "War memorials were all dedicated to 'Soviet citizens'," he says, calling that part anti-Semitism, part the Soviet stress on "one nation".
"But that was very offensive. The Jews were not killed for resisting the Nazis. They were killed because they were Jews."
Touring the city on foot, Efim points out the many traces of Jewish life at its heart.
They include the main synagogue, with a cylindrical cinema built on top of it in the Soviet years. The original marble walls are still intact inside, too solid to destroy.
The Jewish cemetery, partly demolished by the Nazis, was then finished off by the USSR. The graves were heaped with soil and a sports stadium was installed on top.
The only Holocaust memorial in the city centre was put up by the Jewish community itself and the diaspora.
So they're pushing for a new, official monument now at the execution site. The proposals so far, though, include planting some trees in what will eventually become the garden of the luxury flats.
"Some people say they're building on bones, but that isn't true," Alla Kondak, of the city's culture department insists. "We will only stop [excavation] work once all the remains have been recovered."
Those bones will be reinterred at the city cemetery, along with soil from the site, and Ms Kondak sees no need for more.
"There are graves everywhere here! The Germans shot and buried people on the spot," she argues.
But it seems few locals are aware of the specific fate of the Jews.
"We didn't learn anything at school about the Brest ghetto," two women in their twenties admit sheepishly. "I don't think anyone our age really knows."
"I know nothing about the ghetto or the grave," an older lady says, close to the excavation site, and hurries on.
But as another day's digging there draws to a close, the soldiers emerge from the pit balancing more muddy crates full of bones.
It's a history that becomes harder to ignore, with every fragment recovered from the ground. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21831916 | Pioneers of the internet are the first recipients of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Robert Kahn, Vinton Cerf, Louis Pouzin and Marc Andreessen will share the £1m award.
The citation panel said the five men had all contributed to the revolution in communications that has taken place in recent decades.
The UK government initiated the QE Prize as a companion to the Nobels to raise the profile of engineering.
It is endowed by industry and administered by an independent trust chaired by Lord Browne, a former chief executive of BP.
The award was announced at the Royal Academy of Engineering in central London.
Sir Tim may be the best known of the winners, certainly in the UK. Working with others in the late 1980s, he helped develop the world wide web, which radically simplified the way information could be shared on the net.
Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf provided the engineering insights that actually made the internet work. Their TCP/IP protocols define the way data travels around the internet.
Louis Pouzin helped work out how data should be labelled so that it reached the right destination.
Marc Andreessen is the man who developed Mosaic, the first popular browser for the web.
"The prize recognises what has been a roller-coaster ride of wonderful international collaboration," said Sir Tim.
"Bob and Vint's work on building the internet was re-enforced by Louis' work on datagrams and that enabled me to invent the web.
"Marc's determined and perceptive work built on these platforms a product which became widely deployed across nations and computing platforms. I am honoured to receive this accolade and humbled to share it with them," he told BBC News.
The citation said the winners' contributions had not only changed the way we communicate but had spawned many new industries.
The men were commended for having the foresight to make their work freely available and without restriction. The internet and the WWW could not have taken off in the same way without this open approach.
It is said a third of the world's population now uses the internet. Some 330 petabytes of data are estimated to be carried across its servers each year - that's enough capacity to transfer every character ever written in every book ever published 20 times over, the citation said.
The chairman of the judges, Lord Broers, said: "The emergence of the internet and the web involved many teams of people from all over the world.
"However, these five visionary engineers, never before honoured together as a group, led the key developments that shaped the internet and the web as a coherent system and brought them into use."
Lord Browne said the group had "done an extraordinary service for humanity".
"I am delighted that the prize can honour the endeavours of these engineers, and make the story of their world-changing innovation known to the public," he added.
The Queen herself will present the winners with a trophy at Buckingham Palace in June.
Should engineering prize compete with Nobels? |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-43462609 | UKIP has been ordered to pay £175,000 in legal costs over a defamation case brought by three South Yorkshire Labour MPs.
The party was told to pay towards costs incurred by Rotherham MPs Sir Kevin Barron, John Healey and Sarah Champion.
Jane Collins, MEP for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire, had made remarks about Rotherham's child abuse scandal.
She was ordered to give £54,000 to each MP in February 2017, but did not pay.
The interim payment order comes days after the party's leader, Gerard Batten, issued a plea for cash for the party, saying £100,000 must be raised by the end of March.
A hearing in February ruled that UKIP took a "deliberate, informed and calculated" decision to ensure the defamation action brought by the three MPs against Ms Collins should not be settled before the 2015 general election.
UKIP now have 14 days to make the £175,000 payment, ordered by Justice Warby at the High Court.
A joint statement from the Labour MPs said: "UKIP's actions behind the scenes forced the costs of this case to soar and compounded the damage from Jane Collins' unfounded and hurtful allegations.
"This deliberate strategy hugely increased the legal costs and it is right that UKIP are today held liable for a large share of these costs.
"UKIP used the unfounded allegations by Jane Collins for political advantage."
The three MPs said UKIP leaders knew Ms Collins' case was "hopeless" but nevertheless blocked settlement in their favour because they believed it would win them votes.
Sir Kevin is Labour MP for Rother Valley, Ms Champion is Rotherham MP and Mr Healey represents the Wentworth and Dearne constituency. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3429671.stm | The former chief US weapons inspector has questioned the abilities of the intelligence services after failing to find illicit arms in Iraq.
David Kay said in a US radio interview that he thought the CIA owed the president an explanation for warnings about the threat Iraq posed.
Dr Kay resigned on Friday saying he did not believe Iraq possessed large chemical or biological stockpiles.
The White House continues to assert that such weapons will be found.
As questions continue about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction as a cause of war, UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said it was "disappointing" none had been found, but insisted the war was justified to liberate Iraq from a "terrible tyrant".
Dr Kay began efforts to find Iraq's alleged WMD when he was appointed by the CIA to lead the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) last June.
He said at the time that weapons would be found.
The issue of banned weapons was the central element of the US case for invading the country.
Dr Kay said the intelligence agencies had failed to find that Iraq's weapons programmes had been in disarray in the last few years, and that major chemical and biological weapons production had virtually ceased after the first Gulf War in 1991.
He also said Syria had yet to explain the "ample evidence" that it may have accepted the transfer of WMD onto its territory before the war.
"There's satellite photography, there are reports on the ground, of a constant stream of trucks, cars, rail traffic across the border. We simply don't know what was moved."
On Sunday, Damascus said allegations that Iraqi weapons were moved to Syria were "baseless".
In another interview for the New York Times, Dr Kay said that in the late 1990s Iraqi scientists had begun presenting ambitious and fictitious weapons programmes to Saddam Hussein as a means of obtaining cash for corrupt money-raising schemes.
"The whole thing shifted from directed programmes to a corrupted process," he said.
"The regime was no longer in control - it was like a death spiral. Saddam was self-directing projects that were not vetted by anyone else. The scientists were able to fake programmes."
Dr Kay said the failure to recognise this had led him to recommend an overhaul of intelligence-gathering and analytical efforts by the CIA and other agencies.
"I have had analysts apologising for the conclusions that they did," he said.
An intelligence official said in response that it was premature to say that intelligence was completely or even largely wrong, and that "a lot of answers" were still needed. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-39288915/dutch-election-where-did-rutte-wilders-and-klaver-party | Inside the Dutch election after-parties Jump to media player One of the politicians picked a trendy music venue.
Dutch election explained in tulips Jump to media player Politics is a complicated affair in the Netherlands' multi-party system as Anna Holligan explains.
'They say Islam isn't normal' Jump to media player When Dutch populist leader Geert Wilders accused young Moroccans of making the streets unsafe, they were thrust into the centre of his election campaign.
Political pets: where the virtual life of a politician is in your hands Jump to media player Dutch voters can now keep politicians as virtual pets before the general election in March.
Dutch election: Where did Rutte, Wilders and Klaver party?
The BBC's Anne Holligan takes a look inside the politicians' after-parties following the Dutch parliamentary elections. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-33410759 | Two women have gone on trial in Morocco on charges of "gross indecency" for wearing skirts.
The two were arrested in Inezgane last month, after a market trader drew attention to what they were wearing and a crowd gathered round, reports say.
An internet petition calling the arrest an attack on personal freedom has attracted thousands of signatures.
There was controversy in May when a Jennifer Lopez performance in Morocco was considered "sexually suggestive".
There have been a number of demonstrations over the case in Morocco, with protesters saying that women should be free to wear what they want.
Activists also gathered at the court house on Monday to support the detainees.
The two women, 23 and 29, are being tried under an article in the penal code which says that anyone found guilty of committing an act of "public obscenity" can be jailed for up to two years.
The judge will give a verdict on 13 July. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25810899 | The South American Handbook, first published in 1924, and still regularly updated, shows how much - but sometimes also how little - the region has changed over the last nine decades. It also reveals how British business left a strong mark on Chile in particular, writes Gabriel O'Rorke.
The guidebook was produced by the Federation of British Industry for traders travelling to South America for work, and sold for 7/6 (seven shillings and sixpence - 37.5p after decimalisation). The editor was William Koebel, a merchant and author from Forest Hill - then a village in Kent, now a suburb of south-east London.
The Chile section of the book opens with Valparaiso, "the normal point of landing for voyagers by sea".
It was the first major port for ships that had rounded Cape Horn from the Atlantic, and the last for those heading in the opposite direction.
Its golden age was already coming to an end in 1924, thanks to the opening of the Panama Canal 10 years earlier. Ships heading to the Pacific now had a short cut through the Caribbean. Today it's still Chile's main port, but the rise of air travel has cast it further into the shade.
"The street scenes are picturesque," the guide says, adding that locals wear "gaily coloured ponchos".
Nowadays the city itself strikes one as more gaily coloured than its citizens.
The bright corrugated iron houses, dating back to the early 1900s and originally decorated using ship paint, helped Valparaiso become a Unesco world heritage site in 2003.
Another burst of colour comes from the city's renowned graffiti artists, who started using walls as canvases in the 1970s, as a form of protest against the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Now there is an annual competition.
Completely familiar to the original readers of Koebel's guidebook would be the 100-year-old "ascensores", or wooden funiculars, set on near-vertical tracks and constructed using British-built machinery.
The guide describes how from "the edge of the blue waters, on its circular shore, the buildings rise tier above tier up the hills".
It goes on: "A city, a port, a bathing and a pleasure resort, all in one, it is a city of surprises, with lifts to take one up the cliff."
One is called the Ascensor Reina Victoria (Queen Victoria Funicular). It takes you to Atkinson Street, in the heart of the old British Quarter.
Valparaiso is often likened to an amphitheatre as it consists of 45 "cerros" (neighbourhoods, or literally "hills") overlooking the bay. Two of these, Cerro Alegre and Cerro Concepcion, were largely planned and developed - complete with squares, promenades and viewpoints - by German and British immigrants.
These immigrants slowly integrated, or moved on to more prosperous shores, as the Panama Canal diverted trade, and after the nitrate boom ended in the 1930s, leaving behind buildings they had constructed in styles just like those at home (and often with names typical of their home countries).
Move 116 miles inland to Santiago and the same has happened in neighbourhoods like Concha y Toro, where once-vibrant European communities dispersed, leaving behind neo-Gothic and Baroque architecture.
Chile's capital has expanded around the middle. The handbook describes it as covering "about five square miles" - today it's many times that size.
In terms of population, Santiago has grown from 686,000 to more than six million in the course of a century.
However, William Koebel's description of it as "one of the most beautifully situated capitals" still rings true.
The handbook describes Santiago as crossed from east to west by the Mapocho River and backed by the Andes.
Snow-capped in winter, bathed in bright pink at sunset, the Andes Mountains still surround the city, of course, and the river still runs through it.
As for points of interest, top of the list in Koebel's book is Santa Lucia Hill in downtown Santiago "rising a sheer 400 ft, affording magnificent views… almost in the centre of the city and ornamented with gardens, balustrades, and balconies".
Today Santa Lucia still rises up from the pavement like a piece of confectionery, and is popular with courting couples and view-seeking tourists alike - but plenty of buildings are now higher.
When it comes to Chileans themselves, Koebel claims they "call themselves the Britons of South America".
He then adds a word of caution: "Manners are different in Chile, and on the fashionable promenades youths stare at ladies as they pass, and make audible remarks on their appearance. This is not rude according to the Chilean canons, but rather correct conduct."
Little has changed. Modern guidebooks carry similar warnings.
Fodors says: "Chilean men are less aggressive in their machismo than men in other South American countries… but it's still an aspect of the culture (they will make comments when a woman walks by)."
When it comes to Chile's largest indigenous group, the Mapuche, Koebel's guide takes quite a progressive stance.
It talks of Mapuche victimisation and problems with assimilation, predicting that the future will bring "cause to lament the disappearance of a brave and interesting race".
As it happens, the Mapuche haven't disappeared, yet Koebel was right in a way. They account for just 9% of Chile's population and stage frequent protests to demand better political representation - and to complain that forestry companies are encroaching on their ancestral lands.
After listing Santiago's best spots for tennis, golf and horse racing - most of which still exist, including Los Leones Golf Club which was founded in 1910 and still maintains its exclusive edge - the 1924 handbook moves on to other key towns and cities.
Two themes are recurring in what follows: mining and railways.
Although the tide has turned from nitrate towards copper, mining still powers the Chilean economy. The country is responsible for about a third of global copper output.
The railways, however, tell a different tale. In the 1920s the train service stretched 1,865 miles (3,000 km) from Arica in the "rainless" north to Puerto Montt in the Lake District.
Today, the state-run railway Empresa de Ferrocarriles del Estado (EFE) travels southbound from Santiago, making a 250-mile (400 km) trip to Chillan several times daily. But northern Chile's train stations have become museums.
Arica Railway Station, for example, dates back to 1906, but due to lack of demand, passenger services ground to a halt in 1996. Antique trains built in England and Germany stand motionless on the platform.
When the handbook reaches Patagonia it describes the southerly Chilean town of Punta Arenas as a "great cattle, sheep and wool centre". It also mentions that it is "within wireless connection with Valparaiso".
Koebel also mentions that a new wireless station is "being erected at Ultima Esperanza, adjoining the Freezer at Puerto Bories".
Built by the British in 1915, this Freezer was a cold storage plant used to process mutton and sheepskins to be shipped back to the UK. Business ceased in 1971, but the redbrick factory still contains original Victorian machinery bearing the mark of manufacturers in Derby, Birmingham, London and Glasgow. In 1996, it was named a Chilean national historic landmark.
The steam condensers, boilers and forges now find themselves within the walls of a luxury hotel, The Singular, which opened in 2011.
The South American Handbook is said to be the longest-running English-language travel guide in existence. It was originally produced because British people wanted to invest in Chile, and targeted at merchants, traders and businessmen.
Updated annually, and now published by Footprint, today its readers are backpackers, tourists and holidaymakers. The original version still has a certain charm though - and lots of fascinating historical insights. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-47709074 | Psychotic experiences - such as hearing voices or extreme paranoia - are more common in teenagers living in cities with high pollution than those in rural areas, a study of young people in England and Wales suggests.
Scientists say that their research could provide possible clues about why children in urban areas are more likely to get psychotic disorders later on.
But they caution that much more work is needed to be certain of the link.
The study appears in JAMA Psychiatry.
Scientists from King's College London tracked some 2,000 teenagers living in urban, semi-urban and rural areas.
Almost a third (623) reported they had been through at least one psychotic experience between the ages of 12 and 18 - for example feeling like people were spying on them or hearing voices no-one else could.
Researchers matched their responses to detailed estimates of the air pollution each adolescent faced over a year.
Scientists say the findings remained firm even when they factored in other issues that can contribute to psychotic episodes - including a family history of mental health issues, social deprivation and alcohol and drugs.
Lead researcher, Dr Joanne Newbury, from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, said: "We found that adolescent psychotic experiences were more common in urban areas."
She added that while the study could not show pollutants caused the episodes to take place, "our findings suggest air pollution could be a contributing factor in the link between city living and psychotic experiences".
Air pollution: How damaging are idling cars and buses?
How could air pollution be connected to mental health?
Researchers say that while the study does not prove that air pollution causes psychotic experiences, it adds to growing evidence that air pollution may have wider effects on the body beyond the heart and lungs.
They speculate that tiny particles of air pollution could get past the lungs and into the blood and then travel on to the brain. There they could trigger inflammation and contribute to poor mental health.
Another theory is that the chemicals coating these particles could dissolve in the blood and be carried to the brain and again lead to inflammation.
The research team say that noise pollution could partially explain the link too - for example noisy traffic could disturb sleep and add to the stress of city life. But they were unable to measure this directly.
Although it is not always possible, experts suggest trying to use side roads and keeping away from the busiest roads when traffic is at its heaviest.
How sure can they be of the link?
Scientists estimated four outdoor pollutants; the gases nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter - PM2.5 and PM10 - at home addresses and two places the teenagers frequently spent time at - for example schools, work and shops.
And while the researchers say they took other factors like alcohol and drugs into account, they acknowledge it is impossible to be sure they factored in everything.
Dr Daniel Maughan, at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: "While the paper has not proved air pollution causes psychosis, the findings are concerning as they suggest that increased psychosis rates in urban areas are potentially linked to air pollution.
"We need a radical approach to air pollution as it is very likely damaging the mental health of young and older people alike."
Meanwhile Prof Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, at the University of Heidelberg, said: "While this is a careful study of a large cohort, it should be borne in mind that researchers did not actually measure, but modelled, air quality and also could not know when participants were where.
"Also, most evidence points to the relevance of early childhood in psychosis risk, a period the study did not cover.
"While the authors looked at many potential factors that could influence air quality and psychosis risk, such as neighbourhood socio-economic status, the findings should be replicated in a setting where pollution and location are directly measured before firm conclusions can be drawn."
Researchers say they looked specifically at adolescents, because their developing brains are more vulnerable to psychotic experiences. They consider these to be a milder form of the experiences that people have, who go on to develop disorders like schizophrenia in adulthood.
Teenagers who have them are more likely - though certainly not guaranteed - to develop psychotic disorders in later life. So scientists say identifying them at this stage could provide an opportunity to intervene ahead of time.
But they reassure parents that long-term psychotic disorders are rare and most teenagers who go through these experiences do not go on to develop them.
The NHS says that traumatic experiences, stress, alcohol and drug abuse can all trigger episodes of psychosis.
Researchers say anyone who is concerned about an adolescent's mental health should speak to their GP or seek urgent medical advice if the problem is immediate. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/342727.stm | Nato and the European Union are not delivering on their promises to help the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia cope with the massive influx of refugees from Kosovo, according to the Macedonian Government.
That message was given in person by Macedonia's President, Kiro Gligorov, to visiting Nato Secretary General Javier Solana in the Macedonian capital, Skopje.
During the talks, Mr Solana expressed his gratitude to Macedonia for all the help it was giving both Nato and the hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians fleeing Kosovo.
But President Gligorov expressed his dissatisfaction with the level of support from both Nato and the EU.
'The aid so far has been slow to arrive and has been inadequate', said Mr Gligorov said.
The complaint applied both to humanitarian aid and to offers of taking the refugee burden off Macedonian shoulders by transferring the refugees to third countries.
The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, says 234,000 people are now living in refugee camps in Macedonia.
Javier Solana, seeking to address Macedonia's concerns, announced a joint Nato-EU programme to develop south-east Europe, to be launched later this month.
But the Macedonian Government's complaints have been echoed by the local media, who say Skopje has made far too many promises that haven't been followed up by specific action. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4665438.stm | Films such as Batman Begins and TV series The OC are to be made available over the internet via peer-to-peer (P2P) networks by studio Warner Bros.
The firm will sell movies and TV shows over the internet in Germany, Austria and Switzerland from March.
Its In2Movies service will use the same file-sharing technology that has led to an increase in movie piracy.
Warner Bros did not reveal price details but said it planned to widen its international use of P2P networks.
"One of the most effective weapons for defeating online piracy is providing legal, easy-to-use alternatives," said Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Bros Home Entertainment Group.
Its In2Movies service will enable viewers to download legally Warner's blockbuster movies and regional programmes as well as material supplied by third parties.
New films will be made available to registered users of the service from the day they are released on DVD in the German language.
"Our initial efforts will focus on the German market, but in the months ahead we will leverage this technology to better serve markets around the world," Mr Tsujihara added.
A later version of In2Movies will also enable viewers to store movies and TV shows on portable devices.
Warner Bros said that in the first half of 2005, 1.7 million internet users illegally downloaded 11.9 million movies in Germany.
The BBC is currently testing a similar service called iMP, which will enable viewers to watch BBC programmes up to seven days after they have been broadcast on TV. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-44801939 | Relics of Ireland's ancient past have been uncovered - thanks to the recent heatwave and drought.
Images captured by a drone show a previously undiscovered monument or henge close to the 5,000 year old Newgrange monument in County Meath.
Measuring up to 200m in diameter, it is believed to be a late Neolithic or early Bronze Age enclosure.
"The weather is 95% responsible for this find," said Anthony Murphy who found the site along with Ken Williams.
"The flying of the drone, knowledge of the area, and fluke make up the rest in this discovery," he said.
"There's more moisture in the field where the features of this site are and that's why the grass is greener.
"So it shows up nicely against the more yellow grass around it."
A complex of monuments in the nearby area were built along the River Boyne and are collectively known as Brú na Bóinne.
"I had an inkling that something was there," Mr Murphy added.
"We were flying the drone around the Boyne Valley when we saw what appeared to be a circular site.
"We flew a bit closer and we immediately knew that something important had been found. I was completely flabbergasted.
"We know the landscape fairly well and know where the known sites are.
"We knew this was not recorded."
The discovery has been reported to Ireland's National Monument Service which holds details of almost 140,000 monuments.
"This is internationally significant and we now need to figure out what it means," said Steve Davis, an archaeologist at the University College Dublin.
"It's one of a series of large monuments near Newgrange. We don't know what the henges are for but it's thought they were meeting places.
"The confusing thing is why there are so many in one area.
"Nowhere else in the world has so many in one spot."
The monument is on private land and there are no plans to excavate it at the minute.
'Sun standing still': Why do we celebrate the solstice? |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/3257829.stm | An eyewitness has described the moment a 450-feet-high crane "toppled back", crashing to the ground and killing three construction workers.
Harban Canak's flat overlooked London's Canary Wharf, where the HSBC skyscraper was being built when the crane snapped on 21 May 2000.
She told an inquest at St Pancras Coroner's Court: "I looked out of the window and saw what looked like the cable from the crane flying about."
She said the jib - the arm of the crane - was "almost vertical".
"I saw the top topple back, it just left the mast," she said.
Supervisor Michael Whittard, 36, from Leeds, Martin Burgess, 31, from Castleford, West Yorkshire, and crane operator Peter Clark, 33, from Southwark, south London were killed in the incident.
They were part of a team employed by Hewden Tower Cranes to make the crane taller by adding new sections.
They had almost finished when part of the crane, called the climbing frame, began twisting.
Survivor Eamonn Glover earlier told how he realised something was wrong when everything started creaking.
He said: "I jumped over the handrail and got two rungs down," Mr Glover told the inquest.
"Everything came over the top of my head and the whole thing shook.
"I was hanging on, I don't know if I blacked out or had my eyes shut - I could see nothing."
Mr Glover survived by hanging onto construction equipment as the crane fell away.
"I actually thought I was going down with the crane," he said.
"When everything stopped I looked up and there was no crane there."
After the accident the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) published an industry-wide discussion paper about how to improve the operation to lengthen cranes.
Mr Glover told the inquest a special safety plug was missing from equipment which could have stopped the crane moving.
And he explained the crane did not have an anemometer - used to measure wind speed - although there was no problem with the weather that day. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/in_depth/2001/wimbledon_2001/1429418.stm | Goran Ivanisevic took his first Wimbledon title at the fourth attempt with a titanic five-set win over Pat Rafter on Centre Court.
After almost exactly three hours, Rafter netted a forehand return to end one of the great Grand Slam finals.
In front of the most raucous crowd a Wimbledon final has ever seen, the players delivered a wonderful see-saw battle.
Inspired winners mixed with nerve-shredded errors to a backdrop of football-style chants and cheers on every point.
In a stomach-churning final set the match went one way then the other, each player greeting a game won like the championship itself until the tumultuous finale.
The Croatian missed three match points in the 16th game of the last set before digging deep to become the first wild-card in the history of the tournament to win the title.
"I don't know if someone is going to wake me up and tell me I haven't won again," said an emotional Ivanisevic afterwards.
"This was my dream all my life. I came here and nobody thought about me, but here I am holding the trophy."
Rafter was gracious in defeat despite his second Wimbledon final defeat in two years.
"It was one of those matches which could have gone either way," he said.
"Someone has to lose and I'm the loser once again."
Ivanisevic had accelerated into the opening set, holding his serve with ease and then breaking a nervy Rafter at the first attempt.
The cacophonous reception provided by the partisan Australian crowd seemed to unsettle him, the pressure plus his own adrenaline forcing him to overhit his groundstrokes.
Ivanisevic, by contrast, looked focused and duly took the set with ease.
Rafter needed an immediate response and he provided it by breaking the Croatian in the second game of the second set.
Then it was his opponent's turn to tighten up.
Ivanisevic's usually lethal serve began to splutter, his first-serve percentage slipping to 50% - and the match was level with exactly an hour gone.
Ivanisevic called for the doctor, grimacing as his troublesome left shoulder stiffened up.
It was a misleading omen. After five games had gone with serve in the third, Ivanisevic broke Rafter brilliantly with two wonderful returns.
He held on for a two sets to one lead and looked set fair for the title that has eluded him three times in the 1990s - but comeback kid Rafter had other ideas.
In the ninth game of the fourth, games going with serve, the Australian worked a break point.
Ivanisevic fired in an ace, only to be called for a foot-fault. Glowering, he hit what he thought was another on his second serve, only to hear it called out.
With that the volcano erupted. Dashing his racquet to the ground, he stormed to the net, gave it a kick and swore at the umpire.
Rafter duly took the set to level the match and the balance of power seemed to have shifted.
But Ivanisevic, who many thought would struggle to last three intense sets, let alone five, stayed strong.
He had been called a one-shot wonder before this final, but it was the accuracy and pace of his returns and the crispness of his volleys at the net that won him big points as much as the firecracker serve.
"A memorable end to one of the most memorable Wimbledon's of all time"
"This was my dream all my life"
"This atmosphere is what we play tennis for"
So why is Goran our hero?
Links to more Wimbledon 2001 stories are at the foot of the page. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16729387 | This table lists the 200 schools in England with the highest attainment at GCSE level.
The first column shows the proportion of pupils who attained the benchmark standard of five A*-C passes, or equivalent qualifications, including maths and English GCSEs. The average number of points scored per pupil is then used as a tie break - point scores are given for each qualification.
Schools marked IND are independent, those marked SEL select their pupils on the basis of academic activity. Schools marked AC are academies. Schools with fewer than 30 pupils are not included. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1160216.stm | DVD copies of hit film Gladiator have been reworked after it was found the discs contained an image from the Hillsborough football disaster.
The Roman epic, which was directed by Ridley Scott, has been released on DVD along with an additional documentary on the links between sport and violence.
However, because of an error at the US library which supplied pictures to its producers, an image from the 1989 tragedy was included in the documentary.
The error was not spotted until a support group for relatives of the victims got in touch with its UK distributor, Columbia TriStar.
Ninety-six people - mostly Liverpool fans - were crushed to death at the Sheffield Wednesday stadium in 1989 after too many fans were allowed into the stadium during an FA Cup tie against Nottingham Forest.
The still has now been removed from the documentary, which was produced separately from the Oscar-nominated film.
A Columbia TriStar spokesman said the company, together with studios DreamWorks and Universal, "deeply regretted" the error and offered their "sincere apologies".
"We are sincerely sorry for any additional pain this may have caused," he said.
"Now we are aware of this we have taken steps to remove this photograph from all future copies of the Gladiator DVD."
Gladiator was the biggest-selling DVD of 2000, selling more than half a million copies. It helped push DVD sales up to 16.6 million over the year - four times the amount sold in 1999.
The film itself has been nominated for 15 Bafta awards, and is widely tipped to feature highly in Tuesday's Academy Award nominations. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/dorset/5223286.stm | A former BBC journalist has been chosen to fight Dorset South for the Conservatives at the next General Election.
Richard Drax was a reporter for BBC Radio Solent and South Today and was elected in a ballot of members on Thursday night.
The 48-year-old, who spent nine years in the Army, beat off competition from 31 other applicants.
Mr Drax who lives in South Dorset, immediately resigned from the BBC.
The seat is currently held by Labour's Jim Knight with a majority of less than 2,000. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-44733072 | Scandal-hit Scott Pruitt has resigned as head of the US Environmental Protection Agency.
In a letter to President Donald Trump, he blamed "unrelenting attacks" on himself and his family.
Mr Trump tweeted that Mr Pruitt had done "an outstanding job, and I will always be thankful to him".
But since taking office Mr Pruitt has been mired in series of scandals concerning his spending habits and alleged misuse of office.
His deputy Andrew Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist, will take over as acting head of the agency, Mr Trump said.
Mr Pruitt is the subject of at least a dozen investigations into his conduct.
He has been under scrutiny for renting an apartment with ties to a fossil fuels lobbyist at a below market rate.
He is also accused of bypassing the White House to secure big pay rises for two long-time staff members.
Earlier on Thursday, US media reported that he had asked his scheduler to retroactively alter his public calendar - which may be a federal crime - to scrub politically sensitive meetings.
He angered liberals and environmentalists by severely curtailing the agency's activities and repealing many measures designed to protect the environment.
Mr Trump had become fed up with the onslaught of news stories about Mr Pruitt, including reports that he had tried to persuade Mr Trump to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions so that he could take his job.
"It's one thing after another with this guy," an exasperated Mr Trump was quoted as saying, reports the New York Times.
What did Mr Pruitt himself say?
In his resignation letter, Mr Pruitt said he was stepping down from Friday.
"Truly, your confidence in me has blessed me personally and enabled me to advance your agenda beyond what anyone anticipated at the beginning of your administration," he said.
"However, the unrelenting attacks on me personally, my family, are unprecedented and have taken a sizeable toll on all of us," he added.
Mr Pruitt becomes the fourth cabinet-level official of the administration to resign or be fired, after Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Veteran Affairs Secretary David Shulkin.
On Thursday morning CNN quoted an unnamed senior White House official saying that the Pruitt controversies were "inching toward the tipping point". It turns out that point was very close indeed.
The EPA chief had managed to hold out longer than most expected as a cavalcade of controversies mounted, each alone enough to fell a Cabinet appointee in a past administration.
Mr Pruitt had survived due to a combination of the vigour with which he advanced the conservative goal of paring regulations and weakening the agency and Mr Trump's natural reluctance to cede to a political outcry.
In the end, however, it was Mr Pruitt who had been weakened beyond repair - hobbled by allegations of abuse of the power and privileges of office. Mr Trump had come to Washington pledging to "drain the swamp", and Democrats - with mid-term elections looming - were poised to point to Mr Pruitt as a prime example of how the swamp had consumed the president and Republicans in general.
With Andrew Wheeler - a former coal industry lobbyist - set to run the agency for the immediate future, little will probably change as far as policies and priorities within the EPA. Many Republicans in Washington, who were growing uneasy with Mr Pruitt's seemingly never-ending bad press, will surely be happy with the change.
Their relief, however, may be tinged with a certain amount of regret. Mr Pruitt had proven to be an effective champion of the conservative fight against the EPA - and even environmentalists had recognised him as a formidable adversary.
Mr Pruitt himself had aspirations for higher office - either within the administration or back home in Oklahoma. While political careers these days are rarely permanently ended, at least for the moment his has been seriously derailed.
Democrats welcomed the resignation, but there was also little enthusiasm for his replacement Mr Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist.
Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey said "#BigOil's right hand man" was being replaced by "King Coal's best lobbyist".
New York Congressman Patrick Maloney compared Mr Pruitt to a former president.
A staunch conservative, Mr Pruitt has strongly backed Mr Trump over his decision to pull out of the Paris climate accords.
In his turn Mr Trump has praised him for cutting back environmental regulations which he blames for stifling economic growth.
But the White House appears to have cooled towards Mr Pruitt recently.
On Tuesday spokesman Hogan Gidley described the controversies facing Mr Pruitt as "troublesome" and said Mr Trump was "looking into" them.
Reassigning staff for questioning the agency's spending and management. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8526017.stm | A Belgian man who stunned the world last year by apparently communicating after 23 years in a coma cannot in fact do so, researchers say.
The doctor who believed that Rom Houben was communicating through a facilitator now says the method does not work.
Dr Steven Laureys told the BBC: "The story of Rom is about the diagnosis of consciousness, not communication."
His conclusions follow a study to test the validity of so-called facilitated communication.
Claims that Mr Houben - who was seriously injured in a car crash in 1983 - could communicate, swept around the world last November.
After more than two decades in a coma, he was filmed apparently tapping out messages on a special touchpad keyboard with the help of his speech therapist.
By holding Mr Houben's forearm and finger, the therapist was said to feel sufficient pressure to direct her to the correct keys on the keyboard.
Dr Laureys, a neurologist at Liege University Hospital in Belgium, had earlier established that Mr Houben was more conscious than doctors had previously thought - and that is still thought to be the case.
But he also believed that his interaction with the speech therapist was genuine. Following further study, however, Dr Laureys says the method does not work.
He told the BBC that a series of tests on a group of coma patients, including Mr Houben, had concluded that the method was after all false. The results of the study were presented in London on Friday.
Objects and words were shown to the patients in the absence of the facilitator who was then called back into the room. The patient was then asked to say what they had seen or heard.
"It's easy to watch the video and say this method is not valid, but to prove that it is not true is actually very difficult," Dr Laureys said.
Doubts were expressed about the method by other experts at the time and repeated this week.
"It's like using an Ouija board," Arthur Caplan, a professor of bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, told Associated Press on Friday. "It was too good to be true and we shouldn't have believed it."
Last November Mr Houben's mother, Fina Houben, told the BBC that she always believed her son could communicate.
"He is not depressed, he is an optimist," she said. "He wants to get out of life what he can."
Last year, Mrs Houben claimed her son was writing a book. "Just imagine," Mr Houben ostensibly typed out via his speech therapist. "You hear, see, feel and think but no one can see that."
Experts say the question of whether people like Houben who have a traumatic brain injury are conscious and alert remains unanswered.
"I hope Rom and his family will stay as an example" of how hard it is to pick up the signs of consciousness, Dr Laureys told the Associated Press.
"Even when we know that patients are conscious, we don't know if there is pain or suffering or what they are feeling." |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32071816 | "It started out as appreciation of a bargain. I'm ridiculously frugal and not a fan of spending money."
California resident Sara Dunaway-Seitz got married last year. While planning her nuptials a friend suggested an app called Yerdle that offered a modern twist on bartering.
"I was pulled in by the idea of getting things I could use in the wedding for dirt cheap, but the more that I got the hang of it, the clearer it became Yerdle would become an outlet for me to reduce clutter more than acquiring new things," she says.
"In the 15 months I've been an active member, I've tallied up 325-plus gives, and at last check was at about a three-to-one give/get ratio."
Users list items they no longer want or need, priced in Yerdle dollars. They can then be used to buy items from other members of the community.
Ms Dunaway-Seitz is a regular - notable acquisitions include a vintage mink stole and the camera she took on her honeymoon. And in April she's taking part in a Yerdle for a month - using the site for anything she would normally have bought.
Another #Y4M participant, Sacramento-based Becky Cardwell is similarly enthusiastic.
"Some items that I love that I received from Yerdle are a $600 restaurant-quality waffle iron, a leather jacket that fits my mom perfectly, a funky hat, a dozen different craft scissors that came with a carousel that my niece uses all the time, a vintage metal cookie press ... The list literally goes on and on, because I have received hundreds of items from Yerdle," she says.
"You can tell by my interests that I enjoy a good bargain, however it is also important to me to keep objects from filling up the landfills.
"I also love the idea of making a huge difference in someone's life with object that people have sitting idle around their homes."
Image caption Becky Cardwell: "I think [Yerdle for a month] will be a fun way to self-analyze my spending habits, my wants versus needs."
Barter is probably the oldest form of commerce, and in the brave new world of the so-called sharing economy it's arguably the last frontier.
Search the net for examples of companies making it work and you find a battlefield littered with mortally wounded and frankly deceased casualties.
So how do you make it work?
"I think currency has been helpful, I think shipping actually has been really powerful for us as well," says Yerdle co-founder Adam Werbach.
"It's a question of timing, right. And I think those others were just a little too early because this really is a mobile phone experience. You want to go and take a picture of the item and can't really do it with a desktop."
Shipping is handled by UPS. Once the buyer has paid, you print a label and drop it off at the nearest office.
"What we find is a lot of our members have a store of boxes because they are already getting things that way. So it's a very easy behaviour for them," he says.
Revenue comes from the sale of Yerdle dollars so people can top up their earnings.
Listia is another start-up that uses an internal currency model to broaden the appeal of bartering, here in an auction environment. It has more than eight million members and some hefty venture capital backing.
Chief executive Gee Chuang agrees that mobile is a major factor in the success of these platforms.
"A huge trend we're seeing is the shift in online shopping from the desktop to mobile devices," he says.
"Looking back over the past 18 months, the amount of people using Listia's mobile apps to buy and sell has completely overtaken desktop, and over half of all transactions are occurring on mobile devices now.
"The mobile apps make it so easy to walk around your home, snapping photos of items you no longer need and uploading them."
Sustainability is a recurring theme.
"For years I'd seen fruit trees on private property producing an incredible amount of fruit that ended up falling to the floor to rot, or being left to the birds. Then walking into the nearest supermarket I'd see the same fruit being sold for a small fortune, and often imported from interstate or overseas," says Australia-based RipeNear.me founder Alistair Martin.
"It just didn't make sense! We figured there must be a way to connect locals with the abundance growing in neighbourhood yards, so we started to build the framework for what would become RipeNear.Me."
There are now more than 5,000 produce listings in over 40 countries, and it's a roughly 50/50 split between barter (or gift) and sales.
Could it work on barter alone?
"I think it's quite possible," says Mr Martin.
"Finding the right balance for the community and sustainability of the platform is the key, and we're working on a few ideas to make this happen."
"Though people have traded fruit and vegetables with their neighbours throughout history, connecting neighbourhoods (not just the people next door) requires a lot of real-time, relevant data. And maps. Lots of maps."
Art Barter revolves around events, rather than a platform and community. The intent is to give people from all backgrounds access to works of art.
Pieces are displayed without the name of the artist, and members of the public decide what they can offer in return.
"Beyond making art more accessible for many, it also encourages people to think creatively about what they can offer," says co-founder Alix Janta-Polczynski.
"By taking money out of the equation, people often feel empowered and rejoice in this unusually egalitarian approach."
Pieces can be viewed online and are then displayed at a show. The latest one took place in Mexico City.
Swaps have included 30 hours of French tuition for a Tracey Emin monoprint, an intern for three months in exchange for a Tom Sachs' sculpture and a crate of vintage wine for a Jason Dodge piece.
No cash may change hands - but barter transactions are still potentially taxable.
In the UK, according to accountant Julie Butler writing for TaxationWeb, "this can underpin what can only amount to potential income tax, corporation tax or VAT non-disclosure or even fraud".
And US serial barterers should beware, says Robert Wood, a tax lawyer and contributor to Forbes.com.
"The IRS at least views this as a big problem and as not a silly issue. A swap of a loaf of bread for vegetables at a farmer's market is unlikely to draw scrutiny. However, big ticket or repetitive behaviours certainly could," he says.
"Sales are taxable to both parties whether money changes hands or not. There is an underground economy that assumes it will never be tracked. But the IRS is working on this.
"One way it does is to look at transactions with barter exchanges and intermediaries. The IRS requires them to report to the IRS. There will probably always be some off the grid peer-to-peer activity the IRS can't track. But the US tax system mostly relies on self-reporting."
Despite this, the appetite for barter is likely to continue to grow with the current vogue for sustainability.
"It saves money, and it also puts to use an existing item rather than throwing that item into a dump," says Yerdle user Sara Dunaway-Seitz.
"I feel like as a society we're conditioned now to always be needing and always be shopping, and I think most people acquire out of habit versus need." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1906322.stm | The first national scheme in the world for trading greenhouse gas emissions has opened in Britain.
The idea is to induce companies to help reduce humanity's impact on the global climate by giving them financial reasons to cut the amount of carbon dioxide they produce.
The UK is committed under the Kyoto Protocol to reducing greenhouse gas production by 12.5% from 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012.
The UK scheme is the first national system for trading carbon emissions anywhere in the world which is open to any kind of company.
Thirty-six businesses have so far signed up, although the government hopes the eventual total could run into thousands.
Each company has promised to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a certain amount, and in return the government has given it some money.
But now those companies can find the cheapest ways to fulfil their quotas.
They can reduce their own use of fossil fuels, or they can buy part of their quota from another company - trading the credits, just as they might trade any other commodity.
There is a precedent for this idea. Just over a decade ago, the United States Government set up a scheme to reduce acid rain by allowing companies to trade credits for reducing sulphur dioxide emissions.
This has led to sulphur dioxide levels falling much faster than anyone had predicted, and at significantly lower cost.
The UK is just one of the European countries now interested in using this model to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
The Danish and Dutch governments already have pilot projects in place, and the European Union is debating whether it should install a Europe-wide scheme.
New Zealand and Canada are among the other nations who may also set up carbon trading systems in the near future. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38714252 | The mystery of what was said to Nissan to get it to commit to further investment in Sunderland may be unravelled today.
As part of the government's Green Paper on industrial strategy, it's expected that electric vehicles and battery technology will be identified as prime candidates for additional government investment. By way of coincidence, that is precisely what Nissan wants to build on, after investing £26m in battery technology a year ago today.
Nissan, it seems, is the perfect example of how to get government support by getting regional, sector and skills needs closely aligned. That's the way to do it under the government's new industrial strategy.
The words "industrial strategy" send a chill through those industry veterans old enough to have been working in the 1970s. Millions were poured into firms like British Leyland and British Steel - all to no avail.
The government's record at picking winners or identifying "national champions" is pretty poor. Under Thatcher, the government tried to get out of the way. Regulation was reduced and unions were diminished in the hope that animal spirits of business ambition would lead to growth and prosperity.
It did - for some. Financial services, for example, underwent a revolution while primary industries like steel and coal declined.
If we have learnt anything about "Mayism" it's that she doesn't think the benefits of business success will percolate through the country without a bit of a push from government.
Her business minister, Greg Clark, is also no believer in total freedom of the market. Today's industrial strategy is an attempt to lend a helping hand without having both on the steering wheel. The best way to do that, thinks the government, is to provide something that just about everyone agrees is needed and provide it in a location-appropriate way to sectors where we are already pretty successful.
A lack of skills is a perennial gripe of British business. Added to possible future restrictions on hiring from the EU and many businesses worry where they will get the right staff from.
Today's Green Paper attempts to address those concerns with a promise of £170m to beef up technical education by funding new colleges and replacing a plethora of courses - seen by business as low quality - with fewer higher quality courses designed to fit the needs of employers in the surrounding area. This emphasis on localism with skills and infrastructure spending, attempts to recognise that what's right for Birmingham is not right for Cornwall.
Business has a number of other concerns, primarily of course what our relationship with our biggest trading partner, the EU, will eventually look like. Given the political imperative to reduce immigration from the EU, it seems sensible to conclude that it will be harder to hire people from outside the UK. Home grown skills are both desirable and may be increasingly urgent.
However, there are other big questions for the PM and her business secretary to answer. For example: is it a good thing or a bad thing to see our very best businesses (e.g. ARM Holdings, Skyscanner) sold off at bargain rates to foreign firms?
At the moment, the biggest backers of British business winners are rarely British. Is "open for business" good for business? |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4716174.stm | Real Madrid have leapfrogged Manchester United to become the world's richest football club in terms of income, according to a report.
After eight years at the top of the Deloitte Football Money League, United were pushed into second place based on revenues from the 2004-5 season.
Real Madrid's income has doubled in the past five years, as players such as David Beckham have boosted shirt sales.
Nine British clubs made it into the list of the world's richest 20 teams.
Liverpool moved up to eighth in the table after their Champions League victory gave a major boost to their income.
The Deloitte review does not include the cost of transfer fees or player wages and concentrates solely on day-to-day income from football business such as ticket sales, merchandising and broadcast revenues.
As a consequence, Chelsea came fifth in the table with income of £149m despite making a record £140m loss last season.
Manchester United lost their tag as the world's richest club in income terms in the same season that it was finally bought by US businessman Malcolm Glazer.
The club's income fell to £166.4m from £171.5m the year before, due mainly to reduced broadcasting revenues both at home and in Europe.
However, it still made more from match day revenues - including ticket sales and corporate hospitality - than any other club.
Deloitte said Manchester United was unlikely to reclaim top spot this year because of its early exit from the Champions League.
But it said it could return to the top in the future especially as it was further expanding the capacity of its Old Trafford ground which would bring in more revenue.
"United remain one of the foremost brands in the industry and are still clearly the most profitable club in terms of day-to-day operations," said Dan Jones, partner at Deloitte's business sports group.
But he added: "The club will want to improve its performance on the pitch to help management's efforts to increase commercial value."
More than 40% of Real Madrid's income comes from commercial revenues and the club recently secured a £14m-a-year shirt sponsorship deal with Taiwan's BenQ mobile.
Real Madrid's commercial supremacy has come despite a relative lack of success on the pitch in recent seasons.
The club has only won the Spanish Championship once in the last four seasons, while it last won the Champions League in 2002.
However, the appeal of star players such as David Beckham, Ronaldo and Raul have helped boost the club's merchandising efforts. It has used the appeal of these players to boost sales of shirts and other merchandise, particularly in Asia where David Beckham has a huge personal following.
"Real Madrid have been more successful in turning their international support into revenues than most other clubs including Manchester United," Deloitte's Paul Rawnsley said.
Arsenal, Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, Celtic, Manchester City and Everton are the other British clubs to make it into the top 20.
Everton made it into the list for the first time after finishing fourth in the English Premiership last season.
The combined income of the top twenty clubs surpassed £2bn for the first time in 2004-5.
Deloitte said it expected more French and German clubs to feature in the list in future seasons because television revenues in the two countries had increased substantially. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23312810 | "Life's this game of inches. One half-second too slow, too fast and you don't quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us."
So said Al Pacino, in his role as Tony D'Amato in the 1999 film Any Given Sunday.
He was talking about American football, but the sentiment could apply to any competitive sport - especially cycling, where inches mean champions, yellow jerseys and a place in history.
And so it was, in stage four of this year's Tour de France, when the Orica GreenEdge team emerged victorious.
After 26 minutes spent cycling 25km, it all came down to less than a few tenths of a second.
Simon Smart had a lot to do with that success.
Following 14 years working in Formula One, he brought his biomechanical expertise to cycling and founded Smart Aero Technology - a company based in Brackley, an English town not far from Silverstone racing circuit, and one that lives and breathes motorsport.
Mr Smart designed the Scott Plasma, the bike ridden by the Orica GreenEdge team as it triumphed in Nice. The team also used one of Smart Aero's helmets, another crucial factor in shaving off valuable time.
Like Al Pacino's football coach, Mr Smart has made finding those added inches his obsession, seeking out the smallest of differences to discover what the industry calls marginal, or incremental, gains.
Find enough of them - a tweak to a pedal design here, a smooth lump on a helmet there - and you have a winner on your hands.
"You're looking for the tiny details," he told the BBC.
"You're looking to change the shape of something by maybe 0.1mm, and it's making a difference."
Every cycling component, be it the frame, wheels or even the cyclists themselves, is slowing a rider down in some way. The goal, of course, is to minimise that speed loss - known to the experts as reducing drag.
Discovering where drag occurs is a highly complex - and expensive - process.
"The trick there is in developing the tools that can measure the smallest of differences," Mr Smart explains. "Once you can measure the small differences, you can spot the small gains and add them up."
Core to that discovery process is the use of technology known as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).
After designing a bike using computer-aided design software (CAD), Simon is able to simulate what the bike will be like to ride, with the CFD software producing something akin to a heat map of drag.
If the CFD shows areas where the air flow faces greater resistance, it means the rider will be slowed down in real life too.
But the experimentation doesn't end there.
"The downside of that is that it's not the real world, it's on a computer, and it doesn't always give you the true answers."
Being at the home of motorsport has its advantages when you're in need of real-world analysis.
On the same site as Smart Aero sits a research and development hub owned by Mercedes, part of which is a wind tunnel used to test the aerodynamics of, among other things, Formula One cars.
Specialized, a US firm, and one of Smart Aero's competitors, recently invested in its very own in-house wind tunnel - one which is big enough to accommodate several bikes and riders at a time.
As well as testing out the high-end bikes, Specialized also plans to put some of its cheaper models, even commuter bikes, into the tunnel.
"Being able to put multiple riders in isn't good just for road studies - we're very keen to do some commuter draft testing, to see the optimal way to draft off of your buddy commuting to work," said Mark Cote, performance, road and tri-manager at Specialized, in an interview with Cyclist magazine.
The fact that this high-end technology is being used to help commuter bikes is a reflection on the cycling industry as a whole.
Unlike other sports, such as Formula One, the bikes in the Tour de France have to be full commercial products that are on the market.
It means a designer can't simply make a bike that's perfect for one rider in set conditions. It's a big challenge, but one that means the bikes ridden by the pros - and the technology that helped make them - filter down to enthusiasts the world over.
For Specialized, having their own wind tunnel is about helping the collaborative designing process, Mark Cote says.
"Having an on-site wind tunnel means instead of three to five engineers and product managers going to a wind tunnel test for an idea, literally the entire team can walk down the street and offer up ideas.
"So a graphic designer, [who] maybe has never been in a wind tunnel, can see something and say, 'Hey, why don't you do this?' and since we look at this stuff all day, there are often new ideas that come out this way."
By far the most disruptive element in causing drag is one fairly critical to the bike's operation: the rider.
By and large, people aren't naturally aerodynamic, and so great efforts are made to smooth out the human body to minimise the adverse effect.
Many riders will wear skin suits, tailored exactly to their shape, made from fabrics that are known to react in certain ways at higher speeds.
"It's not the easiest thing to make," says Simon Smart. "Because you're trying to avoid the seams that can interrupt the airflow and cause early separation, which increases the drag of the body massively."
On a cyclist's feet - below freshly-shaven legs - can be found a pair of overshoes, stretchy plastic-like socks that slip over the rider's shoes, the buckles of which can contribute to drag.
Special socks alone won't win a Tour de France, but it is perhaps the simplest manifestation of the marginal gain theory.
British cycling's performance director Dave Brailsford, who helped mastermind Team GB's world-beating display at London 2012, made it his obsession to find the 1% gains in every aspect of competition.
"There's fitness and conditioning, of course, but there are other things that might seem on the periphery, like sleeping in the right position, having the same pillow when you are away and training in different places," he told the BBC not long after his Olympic success.
"They're tiny things, but if you clump them together, it makes a big difference."
Or, as a slightly-censored Al Pacino put it: "We know, when we add up all those inches, that's gonna make the difference between winning and losing." |
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/magazine-29227535/palm-springs-life-in-an-iconic-us-resort-town | Life in an iconic US resort town Jump to media player Palm Springs, California, is an iconic American resort town, known for its warm weather and golf courses. But photographer Nancy Baron says it's much more than that.
Korean plot to dominate global culture Jump to media player Author Euny Hong talks to the BBC about how South Korea is conquering the world through pop culture.
Palm Springs, California, is an iconic American resort town, known for its warm weather and golf courses.
But photographer Nancy Baron says her second home is a symbol of the American dream.
She says that away from the main streets where tourists congregate, the small town has a much richer culture than most people realise.
Her photographs offer an insider's look into Palm Springs - including its thriving arts scene and well-crafted midcentury design aesthetic.
They are collected in a new book, The Good Life, Palm Springs. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-34199773 | A new technique for securing and storing carbon dioxide could help to unlock the North Sea's "vast" CO2 storage potential, researchers claim.
Experts around the world have been looking to develop techniques for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).
This involves storing CO2 greenhouse gas emissions captured from power plants and industrial facilities in geological formations under the sea.
Researchers said their new technique could store greater volumes of CO2.
Project partners behind the CO2MultiStore study include Scottish Carbon Capture and Storage (SCCS), the Scottish government, the Crown Estate, Shell, Scottish Enterprise and Vattenfall.
The study concluded storage within a single geological formation could be optimised by injecting CO2 at two points simultaneously.
Researchers based their conclusions on a UK North Sea case study.
They estimated the Captain Sandstone, an extensive sandstone formation which lies more than a mile beneath the Moray Firth, could securely store at least 360 million tonnes of CO2 in just one sixth of its area.
The figure, which is estimated to equal the amount of CO2 emitted by Scotland's energy supply sector over 23 years, is based on carbon dioxide being injected at a rate of between six and 12 million tonnes per year over 35 years.
The UK government has described the development of CCS at coal and gas-fired power stations as "essential in mitigating global climate change".
However, progress has been slow in commercialising the process.
The government is currently considering bids from Peterhead's gas-fired power station in Aberdeenshire and Drax coal-fired power station in North Yorkshire in a £1bn competition to encourage the development of CCS technology. A decision is not expected until early next year.
Dr Maxine Akhurst, from the British Geological Survey, which led the CO2MultiStore project, said: "Our study is one of the keys that will unlock the potential CO2 storage capacity underlying the North Sea and release this immense storage resource.
"Our results show that by using more than one injection site in a single sandstone, operators can store greater volumes of CO2 compared to using a single injection site, so increasing Europe's capacity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."
Scottish Energy Minister Fergus Ewing said: "This research confirms how the huge CO2 storage resource potential beneath the North Sea can be optimised, which, combined with the infrastructure already in place, again reinforces the huge opportunity for Scotland around CCS.
"CCS can contribute significantly to the diversity and security of electricity supply, and also has a unique role to play in providing a continuing supply of flexible clean fossil fuel capacity that is able to respond to demand in the way that other low-carbon technologies cannot."
He added: "Many experts have set out the case that in order to achieve global climate change progress, CCS technology must be developed and implemented to generating stations.
"We will continue to work with a range of partners to firmly establish this cutting-edge technology in Scotland, making full use of our huge potential."
Environmental group WWF Scotland, however, cautioned against relying on the technology to achieve climate change targets because its development so far had been slow.
WWF Scotland director Lang Banks said: "While a better understanding of the techniques that might one day be used to store carbon is important, there's no guarantee that the technology will be commercialised and rolled out in time, meaning Scotland's climate targets could easily be missed.
"Although we'd still like to see CCS tested at Peterhead, given how slowly this technology is progressing, it would make sense for ministers to also explore alternative paths to cutting carbon.
"Independent research has shown not only is a renewable, fossil-fuel free electricity system perfectly feasible in Scotland by 2030, it's actually a safer bet." |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-42302228 | Police Scotland has warned domestic abusers "we are coming for you" in a Christmas crackdown on offenders.
The force highlighted a 25% rise in reports of domestic abuse over the festive period last year.
It received an average of 199 reports of domestic incidents every day between Christmas Eve 2016 and 5 January 2017, compared to 158 at other times.
The #every9minutes campaign will highlight the problem of physical and emotional abuse.
It uses the language and controlling behaviours heard by victims to target the perpetrators.
Launching the campaign, Assistant Chief Constable Gillian MacDonald said officers would not tolerate any form of domestic abuse.
She added: "Domestic abusers want to control the actions and thoughts of their victims, this can take the form of violence but equally it can be threats or other abuse which demean their victim, destroying their confidence, and isolating them financially or from family and support.
"This type of abuse is often subtle and not necessarily as obvious as physical violence. However, this behaviour is equally as damaging, with some saying it can be worse than physical violence.
"Our officers are called to a domestic incident on average every nine minutes. Over Christmas this increases. Domestic abuse affects every community regardless of ethnicity, religion, gender, age or sexual orientation.
"We will not tolerate domestic abuse. If you commit domestic abuse there will be consequences. We are coming for you."
Image caption The police officer tells abusers they are "going to get what's coming to you"
The four-week campaign will run in cinemas, on radio and online, at a cost of £22,500.
It will encourage people to report abuse and point victims towards organisations that will be able to help.
The campaign has been welcomed by Justice Secretary Michael Matheson.
He said: "Even though we know it happens every year, it's no less disheartening to find police experience a surge in domestic abuse calls during the festive period.
"This Police Scotland campaign is an excellent challenge to all perpetrators, reminding them that police officers take a zero tolerance approach and are fully prepared to take on what is one of society's most insidious crimes."
A new domestic abuse bill aimed at strengthening and expanding the law was backed unanimously by MSPs earlier this year.
Mr Matheson said that if the bill is passed by parliament, it will make psychological abuse and coercive control a criminal offence.
"I want victims of domestic abuse to know they will be taken seriously and be supported by the justice system even if it seems like they are alone," he said.
"If passed by parliament, this legislation will deliver more effective powers to pursue perpetrators, helping us on our way to eradicate domestic abuse from our society." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4869328.stm | US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw have urged Iraq's leaders to speed up negotiations on a new government.
The pair made a surprise trip to Baghdad from the UK, after Ms Rice's two-day stay there hosted by Mr Straw.
The talks with Iraqi PM Ibrahim Jaafari and President Jalal Talabani come as Iraqi politicians are struggling to form a government of national unity.
The two are expected to give an update on the progress of the talks shortly.
Ms Rice said the US regarded the formation of the government as a "matter of urgency".
Mr Straw added: "We need to see progress and that is in everybody's interest."
There is mounting pressure on Mr Jaafari, of the majority Shia alliance, to stand down as prime minister.
He has failed to win the support of minority Kurds and Sunnis and now faces opposition within his alliance.
Last week senior Shia politicians said US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, had told them President George W Bush "doesn't want, doesn't support, doesn't accept" the retention of Mr Jaafari.
Mr Jaafari responded by saying the comments undermined Mr Bush's commitment to democracy in Iraq.
Speaking to reporters travelling with her to Iraq, Ms Rice said: "The fact that we're going out to have these discussions with the Iraqi leadership is a sign of the urgency which we attach to a need for a government of national unity."
She added it was "important to have fresh messages from time to time from Washington and from London".
Mr Straw said the US and UK would recognise and respect whoever emerged as leader.
The White House has denied the US is backing away from Mr Jaafari.
But the BBC's Mike Wooldridge in Baghdad said it might explain the apparent stiffness when Ms Rice posed for photographs before talking to the prime minister on Sunday.
After the president met Ms Rice and Mr Straw, Mr Talabani's office released a statement saying they had discussed "the efforts exerted by the representatives of the political blocs", the Associated Press news agency reported.
Mr Talabani also briefed them on the negotiations, and the decision to form a political council and ministerial committee for national security, the statement said.
Ms Rice and Mr Straw also met Vice-President Adil Abdul Mahdi and other Iraqi leaders.
Sunni Arab politician Adnan al-Dulaimi told AP the talks had been about "the Iraqi problem in general, about the government formation and the security problem.
"We also talked about hurrying up in forming the government because the Iraqi people have grown bored of waiting. Our points of view matched."
Mr Jaafari was chosen as PM by the ruling Shia-led bloc after it won December's election.
But Kurdish and Sunni Arab parties have rejected the nomination and have threatened to boycott a government unless he withdraws.
The delay in forming a government is thought to be partly responsible for fuelling the increasing sectarian violence which has struck Iraq since last month's bombing of a key Shia shrine at Samarra.
Ms Rice arrived in Iraq after a testing trip to the UK.
She admitted the US had made thousands of tactical errors in Iraq, but later said she was only speaking figuratively.
She also had to face a number of anti-Iraq war protests in north-west England. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/9371671.stm | German club Hoffenheim have announced they have signed Ryan Babel from Liverpool on a two-and-half-year deal for a fee believed to be about £6m.
The 24-year-old Dutch forward joined the Reds from Ajax for £11.5m in July 2007 but failed to earn a regular first-team spot.
"I am looking forward to my new mission in Hoffenheim," said Babel.
"My first impressions are absolutely positive. I hope now to be able to quickly get into the team."
Babel made 146 outings for Liverpool, with 81 coming as a substitute, and scored 22 goals in the process.
He had been expected to remain in England after Reds boss Kenny Dalglish said on Monday that the player would not be moving.
But a deal has been sorted and Hoffenheim coach Marco Pazzaiuoli told his club's website: "Ryan was on our wish list and, despite his age, he has considerable experience that will strengthen our squad."
Hoffenheim manager Ernst Tanner added: "We are very proud to be able to sign in Ryan Babel an internationally experienced player from a top club like Liverpool. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-42840160 | "I am glad to hear you are in hospital. I hope you suffer torture until you die, you idiot."
Signed "an Englishman", this piece of hate mail was sent to votes-for-women campaigner Emily Wilding Davison as she lay dying in hospital in June 1913.
Days earlier, she had been trampled by the King's horse after ducking on to the track in a protest at the Epsom Derby.
She never regained consciousness and her death on 8 June is regarded as a key point in the votes-for-women campaign.
The letter is among hundreds of rarely seen documents made accessible to students on a new free online course, marking 100 years since the first women gained the right to vote in the UK.
The course timing is "hugely appropriate", and the content "so relevant" given current debates on the gender pay-gap and sexual harassment, says its leader Claire Kennan of Royal Holloway, University of London.
The letter shows today's trolling of female academics, MPs and other public figures is nothing new, she says.
"It just so happens that now this is done on social media platforms rather than through letters.
"There are so many parallels here."
"The idea is that we wanted to take the learners on a journey with me as I go and discover of history of the women's suffrage movement," says Mrs Kennan.
"It's not just sitting listening to a video of a lecture, there are very short sharp documentary-style interviews - which makes it accessible and a lot more interesting and engaging than a traditional course."
Students will learn about the "splits and splinters" in the suffrage movement, with many organisations preferring peaceful campaigning and rejecting the "deeds not words" approach adopted by Emily Wilding Davison and her allies in the Women's Social and Political Union, led by Emmeline Pankhurst.
"Without the militant action we probably wouldn't have got the vote as early but we mustn't forget the peaceful constitutional methods of protest," says Mrs Kennan.
Documents from the National Archive at Kew detail how the state kept tabs on the suffrage campaigns, the protests and the attacks on property.
Windows were smashed, telegraph wires cut and chemical bombs put in letter boxes. There was even a bomb at St Paul's Cathedral which failed to go off.
There are the official records of the costs of repairs, as well police arrest lists and first-hand accounts of the violent force-feeding of women protesters who went on hunger strike in prison.
There's also access to the London School of Economics Women's Library collection, which holds the personal effects that Emily Wilding Davison had on her on Derby Day, including her race programme and her return train ticket.
And another letter, sent to Emily while she was in hospital, this time from her mother.
"I feel I must write to you. I am in a terrible state of mind at the news which reached me last evening.
"I cannot realise that you could have done such a dreadful act, even for the cause which I know you have given up your whole heart and soul to - and it has done so little in return for you.
It is signed: "Oceans of love, Mother." But Emily was never able to read it.
Students can also look at copies of the 1918 Representation of the People Bill, which proposed granting the right to vote to property-owning women over 30, as it went through Parliament.
"They were literally sticking these amendments in by hand and working out what the Act would say," says Mrs Kennan.
She found putting the course together "incredibly eye-opening".
It showed her "just how much my predecessors have done".
The first mass petition backing votes for women was presented to Parliament in 1866.
But it took until 6 February 1918 for the law to change for some women, and only in 1928 did women finally gain equal voting rights with men.
Nancy Astor was the first female MP to take her seat in the House of Commons in December 1919.
The archive shows male MPs did not make her particularly welcome - but very slowly, Parliament began to take issues important to women into account, says Mrs Kennan.
"Things like the tampon tax are now discussed in Parliament, issues around childcare... but there's still a way to go."
She hopes the three-week course will attract a wide range of people, including those who might not otherwise consider higher education.
"It's so important that we encourage a dialogue about the history of women's rights.
"It's not something that's taught widely... charting the process of protest, liberty and reform, women's rights, workers' rights and minority rights."
And there's a message in the history of the long struggle for votes for women for today's equal rights campaigners, she says.
"Don't give up... It's been a long battle and there's still a way to go... but we have come a long way and that's why we need to remember these women."
Beyond the Ballot: Women's Rights and Suffrage from 1866 to Today, from Royal Holloway University of London, in partnership with UK Parliament, starts on Monday February 5 on the FutureLearn platform. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2610755.stm | The claim by a controversial company linked to a UFO sect that it has produced the world's first human baby clone has prompted calls for cloning to be outlawed in the United States.
The chair of a leading American bioethics committee told the BBC the US should "come down very hard on people who want to cross this boundary between procreation and manufacture".
US-based company Clonaid says it has produced a healthy cloned baby girl, nicknamed Eve by scientists, born by Caesarean section on Thursday to a 31-year-old US mother.
Should human cloning be banned?
Chairman of the US president's council on bioethics Leon Kass said that the practice was unethical and should be outlawed.
Although the House of Representatives passed a bill to ban all cloning last year, the bill has not passed through the Senate and has not become law.
"There's a good chance that this particular event or non-event might prompt our Congress to move and get some sort of legislation passed in this session," Mr Kass said.
"The arguments... go beyond questions of concerns about safety and really add up to a deep and permanent objection to what these Raelians claim to have done," he told the BBC.
"If this is the wave of the future then I don't want it."
Earlier, a White House spokesman said that US President George W Bush had found the news "deeply troubling", adding that the news underscored the need for legislation to ban all human cloning in the US.
Clonaid is linked to a sect called the Raelians, whose founder, Claude Vorihon describes himself as a prophet and calls himself Rael.
The Raelians believe humans are the result of a genetic engineering project run by super intelligent extra-terrestrials.
"This is a good step, but it's not the goal. The goal is to give human beings eternal life," said Rael.
"Step two will be through the discovery of accelerated growth process, to be able from a cell from your body, to make an adult clone of yourself in a few hours with a special technology.
"Ultimately, we will create life in the laboratory, like it was done for us, on other planets, and the people who we'll create will look at us as gods, so this is an infinite cycle, if you like," he said.
Clonaid has been racing against the Italian fertility doctor Severino Antinori to produce the first baby clone.
Dr Antinori has claimed that one of his patients will give birth to a baby clone in January.
Clonaid's has not so far put forward any proof for its claim and the location of the alleged birth has been kept secret.
The DNA to be cloned was taken from the mother's skin cell, Clonaid said.
The company says that independent scrutiny and DNA testing of mother and child would be allowed in "eight or nine days".
But BBC science correspondent Richard Black says most scientists doubt Clonaid's ability to clone a human and their motives, pointing to the company's intention to charge around $200,000 for each cloned child.
"There is no proof for any of these claims"
"I don't see any reason to doubt it whatsoever" |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21441953 | Global sales of mobile phones fell in 2012 compared with the previous year, according to a report from research company Gartner.
It said 1.75 billion handsets had been bought, marking a 1.7% decline.
Analysts at the firm suggested "tough economic conditions" had been partly responsible for the drop.
It follows official data from Spain indicating its number of mobile telephone and datacard subscriptions fell by 5% over the same period.
A report by the Spanish regulator CMT said there were nearly 2.8 million fewer such contracts at the end of the year than at the beginning, with Telefonica's Movistar unit and Vodafone bearing the brunt of losses in December.
The country's gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 1.3% in 2012, according to its central bank.
Gartner's data suggests weakening demand for feature phones - lower-end devices with limited functionality - led to the drop. It said that in the final three months of the year, 264.4 million such devices had been sold - 19.3% fewer than over the same period in 2011.
Although smartphones had seen a 38.3% year-on-year gain over the fourth quarter, they had still remained in the minority with 207.7 million units sold, the study said.
The firm added that Apple and Samsung had dominated the smartphone market, with a combined 52% share in the October-to-December quarter.
"There is no manufacturer that can firmly lay claim to the number three spot," said the company's principal research analyst Anshul Gupta.
"Their direct competitors, including those with comparable products, struggle to achieve the same brand appreciation among consumers."
He added that the overall fall in sales marked the first time the market had contracted since 2009.
Gartner's data also indicated that in the fourth quarter, Android had powered 69.7% of all smartphones sold, while iOS had accounted for 20.9% of devices.
For the year, that marked a gain in share for Google's operating system, but a decline for Apple's - although in terms of units sold, both firms made gains. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-45373487 | A man who plotted to kill the prime minister in a suicide attack has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 30 years.
Naa'imur Zakariyah Rahman, 21, from north London, was convicted last month of preparing acts of terrorism.
Rahman had planned to detonate a bomb at the gates of Downing Street and then kill Theresa May with a knife or gun.
Sentencing him, Mr Justice Haddon-Cave said Rahman "would have carried out his attack" had he not been arrested.
Rahman was captured by an undercover operation involving the Metropolitan Police, MI5 and FBI.
He was arrested moments after collecting a bag and jacket from an undercover operative that he believed had been fitted with explosives.
The judge said: "I am sure that at all material times Rahman believed the devices to be real and capable of causing serious harm."
He added that the undercover officers involved in the case were "scrupulous" at all times and Rahman was the "instigator and author" of his own actions.
Rahman made contact with IS recruiters via social media - but unbeknown to him the contact was actually an FBI agent.
That agent referred Rahman to an MI5 team of online role players who convinced him that they were genuine IS figures.
"I want to do a suicide bomb on Parliament," Rahman told the MI5 role players.
"I want to attempt to kill Theresa May. All I need now is a sleeper cell to lay low for now."
Rahman, Mr Justice Haddon-Cave said, had been "told and believed" that the rucksack bomb given to him was "capable of causing casualties on a scale comparable to those caused at the Manchester Arena", where 22 people were killed.
Rahman's lawyer argued he had been brainwashed by his uncle - who was later killed in a drone strike while fighting for the Islamic State group in Syria - and said his client had not intended to go through with the plot.
But a probation report read to the court by the judge revealed that Rahman had admitted in prison he would have carried out the attack had he been able to.
A pre-sentence report described him as a "clever and cunning" young man who had the potential to "operate below the radar to dreadful effect".
Mr Justice Haddon-Cave told Rahman he would have "plenty of time" to study the Koran in prison, adding that Islam was "a religion of peace".
The judge added that Rahman - originally from Birmingham - was a "very dangerous individual" and it was hard to predict if he will ever be de-radicalised.
During his Old Bailey trial, Rahman pleaded guilty to a separate charge of engaging in conduct which assisted the preparation of terrorist acts, which related to a "sponsorship" video he filmed for an associate who allegedly wanted to join IS in Libya.
In addition to the life sentence, Rahman was handed six years in prison for the IS sponsorship video.
The sentences will run concurrently, rather than consecutively. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40332023 | A "large black bear" has killed a 16-year-old boy who was participating in a popular trail running race in Alaska on Sunday, police say.
Patrick Cooper of Anchorage texted his family to say he was being chased by a bear while descending the extremely steep terrain.
The race director, who had been handing out awards, organised a search party of runners after he was shown the message.
Officials shot the bear in the face, but it survived and ran off.
"It did definitely take a slug strike to the face when the ranger fired on it," said Tom Crockett, a park ranger with Chugach State Park, near to the city of Anchorage.
"We know he struck it," he added.
Wildlife and law enforcement officials are still searching for the bear, which they intend to kill if found.
Patrick was running in the juniors' division of the 29th annual Robert Spurr Memorial Hill Climb race between Anchorage and Girdwood, the Alaska Dispatch News reported.
He reached the halfway point - about 1.5 miles from the start - and texted his mother at 12:37 local time after turning back.
Race director Brad Precosky mobilised runners to head back up the trail in search of the boy after a runner returned shouting about a bear attack.
The searchers, who were unarmed, discovered the boy's remains about 500 yards from the trail.
The 250lb (113kg)-bear was nearby, according to local reports.
Patrick's remains were airlifted from the scene.
"I've been running in the mountains for 30 years," Mr Precosky told KTUU News, adding that there were multiple sightings that day of black and brown bears.
"People come down off the trail and say they've run into a bear. Sometimes that means nothing; other times, it's really serious. Like this." |
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/technology-39231308/25-years-of-email-attachments | 25 years of email attachments Jump to media player How the creation of a new email attachment system in 1992 changed the way we communicate.
Email inventor on his legacy Jump to media player Internet pioneer Ray Tomlinson dies aged 74.
It is 25 years since the invention of Mime, or Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions - the system we use to send email attachments today.
Since 1992, people have gone on to send rather a lot of them, as the BBC's Rory Cellan-Jones explains. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-12001821 | Three men from Northern Ireland have been jailed for IRA membership.
Gerard McGarrigle, 46, from Mount Carmel Heights in Strabane was sentenced to five years in prison.
Desmond Donnelly, 58, from Drumall, Lisnarick, Fermanagh and Jim Murphy, 63, from Floraville in Enniskillen, were given three years and nine months.
They were arrested in February after Irish police received a tip-off that dissident republicans were about to carry out a tiger kidnapping.
They had denied membership of an illegal organisation but were convicted last month.
Dublin Special Criminal Court heard during their trial that they were arrested at an Irish police checkpoint outside Letterkenny last February.
Items including an imitation firearm, latex gloves, nine cable ties and black bin liners were found in their vehicle.
Mr Justice Paul Butler said the court was satisfied Irish police had received evidence relating to an alleged plot by dissident republicans that involved either a "tiger kidnapping or robbery", and that the intelligence included the names of the three accused.
During sentencing, he said said McGarrigle had three previous convictions in Northern Ireland for terrorist-related offences, including one in 1993 for attempted murder.
Donnelly and Murphy had no significant previous convictions. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4456082.stm | Children neglected in their early years are left with physical as well as psychological marks, research suggests.
Lack of a loving caregiver directly affects the body's production of hormones thought to be important for forming social bonds, a US team found.
Children raised in orphanages had lower levels of vasopressin and oxytocin than others, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports.
This was despite the children later being placed with stable families.
This suggests the effects may be lasting to some extent, the University of Wisconsin-Madison authors said.
They believe failure to receive typical care as a child can disrupt normal development of these hormonal systems which, in turn, can interfere with the calming and comforting effects that typically emerge between children and their caregivers.
Compared with the control group, the 18 four-year-old children raised in orphanages showed lower levels of vasopressin in their urine.
Researchers believe this hormone is essential for recognising individuals in a familiar social environment.
During an experiment, the children were asked to sit on the laps of either their mother (or adopted mother) or an unfamiliar woman and play an interactive computer game.
The game directed the children to engage in various types of physical contact with the adult they were sitting with, such as whispering or tickling each other and patting each other on the head.
This type of interaction between a child and his or her mother should normally cause a rise in oxytocin. This was seen in the family-raised children, but orphanage-raised children did not display the same response.
Lead researcher Dr Seth Pollak said: "It's extremely important that people don't think this work implies that these children are somehow permanently delayed.
"All we are saying is that, in the case of some social problems, here is a window into understanding the biological basis for why they happen and how we might design treatment."
The researchers added: "The present data provide a potential explanation for how the nature and quality of children's environments shape the brain-behavioural systems underlying complex human emotions."
Dr Julie Turner-Cobb, of Bath University, and Dr David Jessop, at Bristol University, recently carried out research showing children can be stressed out by their own mothers' emotional exhaustion.
Childcare helped to reduce stress (measured by a hormone present in saliva) among children whose working mothers are in jobs with low satisfaction.
Dr Jessop said: "Although there has been a lot of psychosocial work in the past, we are now bringing into play hormonal data.
"So we really have two weapons in our armoury. This provides a very powerful approach to look at the way upbringing and domestic circumstances can affect the way children grow up."
He said larger studies over a longer period of time were needed to determine whether children are stressed by their circumstances and whether introducing more social support would help buffer this. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lancashire-12047690 | The freezing weather has led to further disruption for residents and businesses in Lancashire.
West Lancashire MP Rosie Cooper has said she has received a "huge number" of calls about roads not being gritted, leaving people stuck in their homes.
However, Lancashire County Council said snow ploughs and gritters had been out on the roads around the clock.
Some community transport schemes have also been cancelled due to treacherous conditions on side roads.
Ms Cooper said: "I have had a huge number of telephone calls and e-mails complaining at the abject failure to grit the roads to make them safer.
"There are older people stuck in their homes, people unable to get to the shops for essentials, my staff helped to push people's cars up Burscough Street [Ormskirk] as they were skidding and sliding backwards down the hill.
"There are local businesses for who this is the busiest time of the year and they cannot get their staff into work."
Lancashire County Council said salt became less effective at temperatures below -5C. Temperatures have plunged as low as -15C on some nights.
Dial A Ride services in Blackburn, Darwen and Rossendale Valley, which cater for the elderly and disabled, have been suspended. They intend to run a reduced service on Wednesday, a spokesman said.
Similar schemes operated by Lancashire County Council and Preston Community Transport have also been affected.
The cancellations mean some people have no means of getting out of the house for vital appointments.
Brian Derbyshire, from Lancashire County Council, said: "We're looking out for those that have been highlighted as being the most vulnerable."
Lancashire Police have also urged people to clear all snow from their vehicles before taking to the road, as it poses a risk to themselves and other drivers. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-45966525 | The BBC has "failed" in its duty to give staff equal pay and opportunities, and needs "a more transparent" pay structure, a group of MPs has said.
The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee suggested women at the corporation were earning "far less" for doing comparable jobs.
The inquiry was sparked by presenter Carrie Gracie, who had accused the corporation of pay discrimination.
The BBC said much of the report was out of date but there is "more to do".
It said reforms to its pay structure now "ensure fairness and give an unprecedented level of transparency".
Director general Tony Hall said: "This report is looking backwards and has not caught up to where we are. In the last year, our gender pay gap is one of the lowest in the media in the UK, if not the lowest.
"It's come down in the last year by 20%, and we're the only organisation in the UK who's committed to getting our gender pay gap down to equal by the end of 2020."
The committee's findings come on the same day as the publication of Ofcom's annual report on the BBC, which assesses how the corporation is performing.
More transparency on why major decisions have been made or how projects have been developed. For example, changes to the iPlayer or the plans for a new BBC Scotland channel.
Being more innovative and taking more risks with original programming, both in commissioning and creating content.
Attracting more young people. Ofcom said younger people are more likely to listen to commercial, rather than BBC, radio stations, and that few young people choose to watch BBC Three content online.
Representing UK society better, for example by featuring more older women on TV, portraying national identity without stereotypes, and representing disabled people in a way that doesn't just focus on their struggles from having a disability.
In July 2017, the publication of the BBC's highest-earning presenters revealed an imbalance between the numbers of men and women at the top of the list, leading to an outcry and the corporation commissioning three separate reviews into pay.
But the DCMS committee's report said a new BBC pay framework was "of no use in helping women compare their salaries to those of their male colleagues".
The committee's chairman Damian Collins MP said the BBC "must take urgent action now".
"The BBC acts as a beacon in public life. As an employer it has an even higher level of duty than others to advance equality of opportunity - but this it has failed to do," he added.
The MPs also criticised the BBC's investigations into pay, saying the corporation had "failed adequately to consult staff".
In June, the BBC apologised for underpaying Ms Gracie, BBC News's former China editor, compared with the male international editors, and gave her back pay.
Gracie left her role in January, accusing the BBC of operating a "secretive and illegal pay culture" and said it was facing a "crisis of trust".
The MPs said the episode pointed to a "culture of invidious, opaque decision-making".
BBC star salaries 2017-18: Who earned what?
The BBC said: "Recent disclosures by other media organisations show that the BBC's gender pay gap is amongst the smallest and well below the national average. But we do hold ourselves to a higher standard.
"That is why our action on pay has seen the BBC make real progress in addressing equal pay cases".
The corporation highlighted its audit of equal pay and future planned reviews of pay transparency, as well as the introduction of independent oversight to resolve disputes and steps to rebalance "top talent pay".
The BBC added that its reform to pay structure would "ensure fairness and give an unprecedented level of transparency and information about pay ranges for all staff".
But BBC Women, a group representing female journalists and producers, said the MPs' report revealed there was "intractable processes, lack of transparency, evasive tactics, and no genuinely independent oversight" at the corporation.
"BBC management should lead by example, implement the recommendations made by the select committee immediately, meet its legal obligations on pay," it said. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23882667 | Image caption A blue whale’s head and tail fluke tend to be uniformly grey but their dorsal skin is usually mottled and can be quite pale.
The way that whales react to sunlight can shed new light on the human ageing process, say researchers.
Some species react by getting darker with UV exposure in the same way as humans get a tan.
Others though, protect from themselves from sun burn by turning genes on and off.
The work, which is published in the journal Scientific Reports, could lead to new anti-ageing treatments in humans.
For several years now, marine biologists in Mexico have noticed an increasing number of whales in the region with blistered skin as a result of exposure to UV light.
Over a three-year period researchers took skin samples from three different species of whales during their annual spring migration, when they move to the sunnier waters of the Gulf of California.
The scientists found the different species reacted differently to the increase in sunlight.
Blue whales are the biggest creatures ever to have lived on Earth, and they respond to the Sun by increasing the amount of pigment in their skin, just like humans.
"When blue whales go on their holidays to the Gulf of California they get a tan the same way we do," Prof Mark Birch-Machin from Newcastle University told BBC News.
"And that tan protects blue whales from sunburnt DNA."
According to Prof Birch-Machin, exposure to ultra violet light can damage not just skin but can harm DNA in mitochondria, the battery packs of cells.
The ability of blue whales to tan in response to UV exposure may be connected to their historic migratory patterns as they move annually from higher to lower latitudes with a greater amount of sunlight.
Sperm whales have a different approach to the sun, says Prof Birch-Machin. They can spend up to six hours at a time on the surface of the ocean and have far greater exposure to UV light.
How do whale species live for 200 years?
"They are akin to people going for the lobster approach - so changes in pigment aren't going to help them very much as the UV is overwhelming the system," he said.
Instead of changes in their pigment, the sun triggers a stress response in the genes of these whales, which is similar to our own protective mechanism against sun damage.
"We saw for the first time evidence of genotoxic pathways being activated in the cells of the whales," said researcher Amy Bowman.
"This is similar to the damage response caused by free radicals in human skin which is our protective mechanism against sun damage," she added.
The third species the scientists examined were fin whales. These deeply pigmented animals were found to be more resistant to sun damage, with the lowest prevalence of sunburn lesions.
The researchers hope that by seeing both changes in pigment and changes in genes, the whales may shed some light on the ageing process in humans.
"The sunburnt DNA we find in whales is the same sunburnt DNA we find in humans and that is definitely linked to ageing," said Prof Birch-Machin.
"The study shows the interaction of systems that we can then examine further in human research, and that's got implications for anti-ageing and skin cancer approaches," he said.
And the research, he believes, will be of interest to pharmaceutical companies.
"They are always on the lookout for what they can see in non-human systems and what they can borrow from that in terms of anti-ageing and this research will certainly help in that," he said.
The scientists say that further work is required to see if the sun burn that the whales are experiencing turns into skin cancer. They also want to know if an early warning system for the animals can be developed. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-sussex-12025233 | A man died after the ambulance he was being treated in, being driven by a police officer, left the road in poor weather conditions in East Sussex.
Daniel Martin, 31, of Horam, had earlier received life-threatening injuries when his Mini collided with a highways lorry.
Because of the severity of his injuries, both ambulance crew members were needed to deal with Mr Martin.
However, the ambulance then left the road and hit a bush in Ninfield.
A man driving the highways vehicle was arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving and later freed on bail.
Sussex Police said the 36-year-old, from St Leonards-on-Sea, was bailed to 17 February, pending further inquiries.
A post-mortem examination is due to take place on Wednesday.
The first accident happened just before 1430 GMT on Friday when Mr Martin, who was driving a Mini, was in collision with the highways vehicle on the A271 Boreham Street, near Herstmonceux.
A police officer then drove the ambulance as two paramedics tried to treat him, as he had suffered life-threatening injuries.
Twenty minutes later the vehicle crashed into a bush in Standard Hill in poor weather. An ambulance crew member was later treated in hospital for minor injuries.
The Sussex Police helicopter and the Kent Air Ambulance attended the scene of the second accident but Mr Martin died there.
A police spokesman said it was an "unusual occurrence" but was normal practice for police officers to take the wheel of an ambulance in a medical emergency.
Det Ch Insp Mike Ashcroft, of Sussex Police, said: "This is a complex series of interlinked events, which happened during adverse weather conditions.
"A detailed investigation involving forensic collision investigators is continuing against a backdrop of worsening weather."
Sussex Police subsequently contacted the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which is expected to decide on Monday whether to investigate.
The flatbed highways vehicle was carrying road equipment and operated by a contractor on behalf of East Sussex County Council. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-39217135 | Two men have been seriously injured in a crash in Aberdeenshire.
A black Vauxhall Corsa and a blue Toyota truck were involved in the collision on the A947 just north of Fyvie at about 07:20.
The 17-year-old driver of the Corsa was airlifted to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary while the 27-year-old Toyota driver was taken to the same hospital by road.
Police Scotland want to trace witnesses including the driver of a blue BMW who was travelling southwards.
Sgt Rob Warnock, from the Inverurie Road Policing Unit, said: "Enquiries into the circumstances of the incident are at an early stage and I am appealing to anyone who witnessed the incident or saw either the black Vauxhall Corsa or blue Toyota Hilux crew cab prior to the incident to contact police.
"In particular we would like to speak to the driver of a blue BMW vehicle which had been travelling southwards at the time of the collision. This vehicle was seen overtaking just prior to Fyvie.
"The occupant may have information which could help the investigation and I would appeal for them or anyone who saw this vehicle to contact us." |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-15391515 | BBC News - 7 billion people and you: What's your number?
The world's population is expected to hit seven billion in the next few weeks. After growing very slowly for most of human history, the number of people on Earth has more than doubled in the last 50 years. Where do you fit into this story of human life? Fill in your date of birth below to find out.
Both numbers have been calculated using UN Population Division figures. The first is an estimate of how many people were alive on your date of birth. It is one possible value based on global population figures and estimates of growth rates over time. Data before 1950 is less accurate than figures after that date. The second number includes calculations based on the methodology of scholar Carl Haub, who estimated how many people had been alive since 50,000 B.C. His calculation has been amended by the UN to include additional points in time.
In developing nations, where improvements in health care and sanitation are seeing death rates fall, birth rates still remain relatively high. This is leading to rapidly rising populations. In fact, 97 out of every 100 new people on the planet are currently born in developing countries. Qatar - which has a large immigrant workforce - has seen its population rise rapidly in recent years.
In richer economies, although death rates are also low, widely-available birth control and a desire for smaller families keep birth rates subdued. Fewer babies ensures populations level off or even decline. Moldova, although poor by European standards, has seen its population drop mainly because of emigration.
Japan's high life expectancy has been put down to a combination of a healthy diet and good public health provision, which includes regular check-ups.
The low life expectancy of those born in poorer countries, such as the Central African Republic, is explained by a number of factors, including poverty, conflict, poor access to health care and the high prevalence of Aids.
All population data are based on estimates by the UN Population Division and all calculations provided by the UN Population Fund. The remaining data are from other sections of the UN, the Global Footprint Network and the International Telecommunications Union.
Want to find out more? Visit the UN Population Fund's detailed population calculator, 7 billion and me.
Notes on the data: Only birth dates after 1910 can be accommodated and only countries with populations of more than 100,000 people are included. Where available, the UN's medium variant and average figures from 2005-2010 have been used. World and country population clocks are estimates based on the latest UN figures and growth rates. They may not tally precisely with other clocks because of the way this application is configured.
Three country groupings - developed, developing and least developed - featured in the conclusions are those referenced by the UN for assessing the Millennium Development Goals. The transition countries of Eastern Europe have been grouped with developed nations.
Read the answers to frequently asked questions here.
See more BBC News interactive features and graphics and follow us on Twitter. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-40781213 | It's 26 years since Yugoslavia broke into pieces and the republic of Macedonia came into being. In all that time, the new country has lacked an official, internationally agreed name, because of Greece's objections to the name "Macedonia". And for nearly all of that time, explains Alex Marshall, one man has been working to solve the problem.
Matthew Nimetz wants to make something clear - he has not spent every waking moment of the past 23 years thinking about one word: "Macedonia".
"I have probably thought about it more than anyone else - including in the country," says the 78-year-old US diplomat. "But I have to disappoint anyone that thinks it's my full-time job."
Since 1994, Nimetz has been trying to negotiate an end to arguably the world's strangest international dispute, in which Greece is objecting to Macedonia's name and refusing to let it join either Nato or the EU until it's changed.
Greece says the name "Macedonia" suggests that the country has territorial ambitions over Greece's own Macedonia - a province in the north of the country - and is a blatant attempt to lay claim to Greece's national heritage.
It should be called something like "Skopje" instead, Greece argues - Skopje being Macedonia's capital city.
Macedonia, by contrast, argues that you can trace its people back to the ancient kingdom of Macedon, once ruled by Alexander the Great - and that the name "Macedonia" is therefore the obvious choice.
One upshot is that travellers entering northern Greece from the Republic of Macedonia, and those crossing the border in the opposite direction, are both greeted by roadside signs welcoming them to Macedonia.
When Nimetz began his work on the dispute he was serving as US President Bill Clinton's special envoy, but since the end of 1999 he's been the personal envoy of the UN secretary-general - his task to nudge the two sides slowly towards a resolution, for a token salary of $1 per year.
Macedonia got into the UN by agreeing to be called The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) for all official purposes, but this was not intended to be a permanent solution to the problem, and created a new set of difficulties.
"It makes for very awkward sentence construction," Nimetz says, with some understatement.
Ban Ki-moon, the former UN secretary-general, once got muddled and called the country the "Former Yugoslav Republic of Yugoslavia" by accident. "He said to me, 'You've got to solve this problem. It's driving me crazy,'" Nimetz says.
Despite the glacial pace of negotiations, he has never seriously thought of quitting.
"Some people think it's me just sitting there thinking of adjectives to put in front of the name Macedonia - like New Macedonia, Upper Macedonia - but this issue has historical importance… importance in terms of nation-building," he says.
"And it is never boring, the cast of characters dealing with it changes all the time. Think of a theatre director who does King Lear or Hamlet, but with different staging and actors. Do they get bored?"
When Nimetz first became Clinton's envoy, back in the 1990s, it looked as though the dispute could spiral out of control.
Greece had been objecting to Macedonia's name since 1991, when Macedonia declared independence from Yugoslavia. The following year, a million Greeks - a 10th of the population - took to the streets of Thessaloniki to protest.
Those protests helped bring down the country's prime minister, and his replacement, Andreas Papandreou, barred Macedonia's access to Greek ports. Macedonia was a "real and present danger to Greece", he claimed.
Nimetz has a surprising amount of understanding for the Greek fear that Macedonians could one day lay claim to Greek territory.
"I have to explain to people this Greek concern about irredentism is not just created out of thin air," he says.
"Within the last three generations, these sorts of threats were real to the country. This feeling that 'We're always being encircled.' In the Balkans, each country has a history of being dismembered, or having fought off their neighbours at some point."
He once explained the dispute to US senators by asking how they would feel if Mexico changed its name to The Republic of Mexico and Texas, then started publishing historic maps implying ownership of the whole south-west US.
However, he has equal understanding for the Macedonians.
"When the Greeks say to them, 'Oh, you only came here in the 9th, 10th Century - you're not really from this region. You should call yourselves, at the most, New Macedonia,' well, to the people of The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, that's a problem. They don't consider themselves 'new'. They consider themselves indigenous as anyone."
Despite this, Nimetz did at first think there would be a quick end to the dispute. So did leading Macedonian politicians.
"I talked about it with them and they said, 'Time is in our favour. Let's just talk a few years, let things calm down, change some people in government.' But it didn't quite work that way," he says.
A long list of names has been suggested: everything from New Macedonia and Nova Makedonija, to Slavo-Macedonia and the Republic of Skopje. At one point, both the Upper Republic of Macedonia and the Republic of Upper Macedonia were on the table.
But none has yet been accepted.
It may seem as though there are no more adjectives left to try - or any point trying them - but Nimetz insists disputes get solved when the timing is right.
Just look at Northern Ireland or the reunification of Germany, he says. Change may occur because events make people look at an issue in a new light, or new leaders may come in with the political authority to take tough decisions. Or people may just get exhausted by never-ending debate.
He is optimistic that the timing may be right for this dispute soon. This is partly due to new leadership in Macedonia - the Social Democrat Zoran Zaev became prime minister this year, breaking a long political deadlock in the country. But also because Macedonia needs to find a solution so it can get closer to its goals of joining Nato and the EU.
"Doing that would give them reassurance, legitimacy, economic opportunities… and a sense of permanence," Nimetz says. It also might ease tensions in the country between ethnic Macedonians and Albanians, who make up a quarter of the population. In 2001, such tensions brought the country to the brink of civil war.
But Nimetz admits convincing voters in both countries will be difficult. Macedonian leaders have promised any agreement will go to a referendum.
He thinks part of the way out is to encourage people not to see this as a question of national identity.
"I told him his concern is understandable, but it's the wrong way to look at this. We are only talking about the formulation of the name of this state for diplomatic purposes. It won't impact the average person.
"We're not negotiating identity. If we were, I'd be out of here."
He does recognise that identity is important, though - despite being "a great believer in globalism".
"I believe there's a tribal aspect to us as a species," he says, "and it's very hard to feel comfortable in a global world, even for people like me."
In all his time working on the dispute, there has been only one moment when Nimetz united both sides. It was at an unlikely time too, when Macedonia was putting up numerous statues of Alexander the Great in its cities, and had named its main airport after him, causing outrage in Greece.
Image caption Skopje's airport is named after Alexander the Great, while Thessaloniki's (above) is called "Macedonia"
"When that was happening, I said to a reporter from Skopje, 'I can't understand all this, because Alexander the Great was a great military leader, but he destroyed so much and killed so many people.' Well, I got hell for that - from all sides. I almost resigned."
Nimetz has just finished his latest round of meetings on the issue, meeting politicians in Skopje, and Greece's foreign minister.
A solution can be achieved, he insists, but for the immediate future he is busy simply planning a holiday "up above the Arctic Circle to a lodge where the caribou migrate".
A good chance to get away from questions about national identity and self-determination, surely?
"Well, actually," he says, "Maybe not, when you think about the First Nations of Canada…"
He then starts enthusiastically explaining Canada's debate about indigenous self-government, and it quickly becomes clear that his love of such questions is the real reason he has been able to work on a dispute about just one word for the past 23 years. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28707117 | Thousands of Britons could be inadvertently sharing their digital secrets with anyone who knows where to click, suggests a BBC investigation.
At risk are photographs, home videos and music collections as well as scans of documents such as passports, tax forms and other sources of personal data. In some cases, back-up files are being made available that, if downloaded and restored, could let attackers take over a victim's online life.
Security firms suggest that attackers have already found out about this easy-to-access source of saleable data and are starting to actively seek it out and share it.
Those at risk are people who use home data storage devices known as Network Attached Storage (NAS). Correctly configured, these devices act as a common data store accessible by any other device connecting to that home network.
However, many people have set them up incorrectly and have accidentally made this data accessible not just to their home network but to the internet at large. Visiting this data is as easy as visiting any other webpage.
To find out how many people are accidentally sharing their data online, the BBC turned to the Shodan search engine. While Google, Bing and others seek out data on the net, Shodan looks for devices.
In the past, security researchers have used Shodan to expose insecure and poorly protected computers controlling industrial plants, power plants, heating and ventilation systems and CCTV streams.
A search via Shodan turned up tens of thousands of NAS systems in UK homes.
Working out which ones of these are sharing personal data is difficult because British computer misuse laws do not allow the BBC to visit them to see which are happy to share data with anyone.
An idea of how many are exposed to the net can be gleaned by examining the information that Shodan collects about the NAS boxes. This gives a strong hint that many are making public huge amounts of private data.
Independent corroboration of the BBC's findings has been given by security firm Digital Shadows. Among other things, the firm helps large businesses find out how much information about them is being shared online. As part of this work, Digital Shadows carries out surveys that seek places where internal data leaks out on to the net.
Domestic NAS boxes are regular sources of these leaks, said James Chappell, chief technology officer at Digital Shadows.
"We've seen tens of thousands that are available online," said Mr Chappell. "We've also definitely seen an increase in the number of devices in the last six months.
"The most worrying part is that it's getting worse."
Mr Chappell has no doubt that a lot of the data available via these NAS boxes is deeply personal.
"For me, the most worrying part of this is that consumers are just trusting the device manufacturer to make smart choices about how they defend the security of their devices," he said. "They need to be aware that the manufacturer may not be as diligent as they hope."
Owners of NAS boxes should check to ensure that they are configured to surrender data only to devices within their home network, he said.
The default state of many of the devices is to share widely, he said, and often owners have to make a specific choice to restrict access.
There was evidence that attackers were starting to realise that home NAS boxes could be a good source of saleable data, said Mr Chappell.
The net scans that Digital Shadows carried out regularly revealed links to domestic NAS boxes on the Google index, he said.
"That means it will have to have been shared somewhere else to make it crop up on a search engine."
That "somewhere else" could well be a place where cyberthieves gathered or swapped data, he said.
Criminals were certainly starting to take more interest in home networking devices, said Craig Young, a researcher from Tripwire who has studied the security shortcomings of both NAS boxes and home routers.
"It does seem like large-scale attacks on these devices are coming more frequently," said Mr Young.
Image caption Network-attached storage uses cheap hard drives to form a large data store.
One such attack took place in February when Poland's Computer Emergency Response Team reported details of an attack on routers that installed snooping software on vulnerable devices. This software watched data traffic passing out of the device, grabbed any that related to online banking and passed it back to the gang behind the attack.
Unfortunately, he said, the poor security on many routers meant that success was almost guaranteed for attackers that targeted home hardware.
"Manufacturers could make them better but it would cost them development time and money," he said. "I have not seen any that do things like encrypt passwords and all are designed to use just rudimentary security controls."
Mr Young helped to organise a competition at the recent Defcon hacker conference that tried to see how well widely used home routers withstood attacks. All nine routers used in the contest were comprehensively compromised and the event found a series of hitherto unknown vulnerabilities in the software used to control them.
Similarly Jacob Holcomb from Independent Security Evaluators has found a large number of easy-to-exploit vulnerabilities in many popular NAS boxes. Many hand over data when hit by the most basic attacks, he said.
Getting known faults on routers fixed could be frustrating, said Mr Young.
"I've worked with several vendors and I'll report that there's an authentication bypass in Model X and after a bit of pushing I get that fixed on the model," he said.
"However," he added, "they then don't fix the same bug on other devices, even if the change to the firmware is the same for all of them."
Given this lackadaisical attitude, it was worth consumers taking a little time to protect themselves.
"They tend to have very common flaws that people really need to be paying more attention to," he said. "Change the IP address, change the default password, upgrade the firmware once in a while.
"It's really pretty straightforward," he said. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-35039054 | Long-term photography projects are not new, but increasing numbers of photographers are embracing in-depth storytelling and creating series over longer periods of time, juggling this work alongside commissioned assignments. Gemma Padley explores this growing trend.
Photographers, especially those working within documentary photography or photojournalism, have always undertaken projects on which they have worked for many months or even years.
In 1955, W. Eugene Smith famously spent a year on a project that was supposed to last only three weeks, having been commissioned to shoot 100 images for a book by Stefan Lorant, Pittsburgh: Story of an American City.
Smith finally stopped having made almost 17,000 photographs, believing he had captured both the essence of the city and America at that time.
More recently there is The Sochi Project, Rob Hornstra and Arnold van Bruggen's investigation into Sochi in Russia, the site of the 2014 Winter Olympics, which they worked on for several years in the run-up to the event.
The project has been cited as an example of slow journalism - a body of work that has its roots in detailed research and evolves over a long period of time.
"If you are a photographer living away from your home country, combining personal work with assignments is one way to fund what you are doing," says Guy Martin, who has been living in Istanbul for the past three-and-a-half years, working on City of Dreams. It tells a story of politics and cultural life in Turkey by combining images shot on the sets of Turkish soap operas and at protests in the country.
"In some instances, assignments overlap into areas of interest where your own personal project sits," he adds. "The challenge is to shoot what you need to for the client and then at the same time photograph with a personal vision for your own work. For me, shooting assignments has been essential in allowing me to continue my personal work in Turkey."
Over the past few months, Martin has been expanding his project, helped by a grant from the Magnum Emergency Fund.
This kind of funding is essential in enabling photographers to continue their personal long-term work, he says. "Grants, awards and scholarships are a lifeline for me. Without them, no work would be possible. They add to what you can do and how ambitious you want to be with your personal work. With money for expenses covered by awards, grants and scholarships, everything suddenly seems possible."
Ciril Jazbec's on-going work in Greenland on climate change is another example of a long-term project that keeps on gaining momentum.
The Slovenian began On Thin Ice during his master's degree in early 2013 and has since made several trips to the region where he has spent about six months in total. Some of the images were recently published in National Geographic.
The project is an example of how a personal body of work can evolve into something that catches media attention, helping to put the photographer on publications' radars and perhaps even leading to future paid work. The potential rewards available as a result of investing time and energy into a long-term project (exposure, future commissions, and so on) are obvious.
This year, with its finger ever on the pulse, the world's largest and most prestigious photojournalism contest World Press Photo (WPP), announced the winner and runners-up in a new category - Long-Term Projects - featuring series produced over several months or even years.
Darcy Padilla won with Family Love, a body of work about Julie, who is HIV positive and caught up in drugs, which she made over 21 years.
"The new award reflects what's happening in the industry and how photographers are turning to long-term personal projects and in-depth investigations," commented David Campbell, WPP 2015 general secretary, earlier this year. "It was designed to reflect where a lot of work is being done in documentary photography and visual storytelling today."
The new category received more than 500 entries - not bad for its first year - and the WPP has introduced an additional category for 2016 titled Long-Term Projects - Group, to reward teams of two or more photographers who have been collaborating on a single long-term project.
The overall WPP 2015 winning image also came from a long-term project, which the photographer has been working on since 2013.
Danish photographer Mads Nissen won with his image of a gay couple shot in St Petersburg, Russia. The photograph, from Homophobia in Russia depicts a moment of tenderness between two lovers and in doing so draws attention to a wider story about the difficulties for lesbian and gay people in Russia where sexual minorities often face discrimination and harassment.
In an age where we are constantly told that print publications are struggling financially and no longer able to support photographers, it's heartening to see the industry get behind image-makers who are channelling a huge amount of time, energy and personal resources into their own projects.
And, given the wealth of tools and opportunities available to photographers, it makes sense that many are taking matters into their own hands, shooting work that means something to them, rather than waiting for a commission to come along.
For Martin, it's possible to "cover your bases in the traditional editorial market", but take advantage of opportunities online including using social media sites to generate interest in a personal project. From here, he says, you can think about incorporating sound and moving image with still images to further the project's scope.
"The main thing you need is a solid idea and a clear personal vision. Use all the tools and contacts that are available to you - old and new, it doesn't matter. From my experience, people are willing to collaborate from an early stage in a personal project, but you have to have that initial idea and imagery, or work-in-progress. From there, the world's your oyster."
Gemma Padley is a freelance journalist specialising in photography who has written for a wide range of publications including British Journal of Photography, The Telegraph, Time and Amateur Photographer. You can follow her on Twitter. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/cornwall/4075868.stm | A Cornish pub company has taken Jamie Oliver's food campaign to heart and is retraining its chefs on how to better cater for its younger clientele.
St Austell Brewery is holding workshops to teach its chefs about replacing processed meals with locally sourced fresh ingredients.
The company owns 158 pubs in Cornwall and Devon.
Paul Drye, of the firm, said: "With a little thought we can produce good food that appeals to children."
The company said the move had been led by more parents taking out their children for meals, and children rejecting traditional meals such as chicken nuggets, fish fingers and deep-fried food.
Mr Drye said: "Unfortunately for many years the choice of a healthy option has not been available on many children's menus in pubs and restaurants and we are determined to lead the way in changing that."
Fourteen of the company's chefs attended the most recent workshop on Tuesday where they were offered advice such as making smaller portions of adult dishes available to children.
Mr Drye said: "Good children's food does not have to mean a lot of extra work in the kitchen." |
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-47740523 | Five of the UK's largest airlines are facing legal action which claims pilots and cabin crew are regularly exposed to toxic fumes during flights.
The Unite union said legal notice has been served in 51 cases, the majority of which are against British Airways.
EasyJet, Thomas Cook, Jet2 and Virgin Atlantic are also subject to the legal action over "aerotoxic syndrome".
The airlines said that previous studies found no proof of long-term ill-health arising from cabin air quality.
The Unite union, which represents airline staff, claims pilots and crew are exposed to frequent "fume events" when air drawn into the aircraft becomes contaminated by toxic compounds.
The union says the fumes, which originate from the oil used to lubricate the jet engines, contain organophosphates and TCP, and that long-term exposure can lead to chronic ill-health and life-threatening conditions.
"Independent expert evidence concludes that air on board jet planes can contain a toxic mix of chemicals and compounds that potentially damage the nervous system and may lead to chronic irreversible health problems in susceptible individuals," said Unite's assistant general secretary for legal services, Howard Beckett.
"The airline industry cannot continue to hide from the issue of toxic cabin air whilst placing the health and safety of aircrew at risk."
British Airways responded that "none of the substantial research conducted over many years" had shown a link between cabin air quality and ill-health.
"We would never operate an aircraft if we believed it posed a health or safety risk to our customers or crew," British Airways said.
It also pointed to research by the regulator, the European Aviation Safety Agency, which concluded that the aircraft air quality was "similar or better than that observed in normal indoor environments".
Unite said that it has independent expert evidence that it will produce in court to back its claim that the air "in most commercial airline cabins can cause irreversible neurological damage and chronic illness among susceptible individuals".
As well as backing the legal action, the union is calling for an inquiry into the safety of cabin air. It suggests different oils could be used to lubricate engines that are less likely to leak toxic fumes.
It is calling for better monitoring of cabin air and the installation of air filters.
EasyJet said its aircraft were "fully compliant with the latest standards in terms of air quality and air-conditioning".
It added: "EasyJet takes any health concerns raised by its crew seriously. However, aviation regulators and manufacturers around the world have looked at this issue and found no proof that long-term health issues arise from cabin air quality."
The budget airline acknowledged that while "fume events" did occur, research suggested they could cause "some minor acute symptoms" but found no link with long-term health effects.
Of the cases being brought, four are by pilots, while the remaining 47 are from cabin crew.
The majority, 41 of the cases, relate to British Airways. Unite, which has campaigned on the issue for several years, said it could take up to a year for the cases to come to court.
Unite also said that because air was not drawn in via the engine on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the problem of aerotoxicity did not apply to that aircraft. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/t/tottenham_hotspur/5395580.stm | Tottenham head coach Martin Jol has called striker Mido "irresponsible and disrespectful" for comments about former Spurs hero Sol Campbell.
Speaking ahead of Sunday's match against Portsmouth, Mido said Campbell was "one of the easiest defenders" he had played against.
Jol said: "I have told him to let his football do the talking in the future."
Portsmouth coach Harry Redknapp said Mido's comments were "arrogant" and "an insult" to the 32-year-old defender.
Campbell is certain of a hostile reception from Tottenham fans in Sunday's match at White Hart Lane following the former England defender's move to Spurs' bitter rivals Arsenal in July 2001.
"Given the feelings that still run high about Sol among our supporters, Mido's comments were not only disrespectful, they were also irresponsible," Jol added.
Campbell has played in all six of Portsmouth's league matches this season, during which the team has only conceded one goal.
He was backed by Pompey boss Redknapp who said: "Those comments will embarrass every footballer in the game as we don't talk like that about fellow pros.
"I'm sure his manager at Tottenham will also be embarrassed when he reads those remarks as it shows Mido has no real feeling for the game over here.
"One thing is for certain, I won't have to say too much to my lads in the dressing room at Tottenham.
"I'll just stick a newspaper cutting up on the wall and that will do for me." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7699579.stm | Women who drink a small amount of alcohol while pregnant do not increase their child's risk of behavioural problems, a study has suggested.
The University College London team classed "light" drinking as up to two drinks a week throughout pregnancy.
The study of 12,500 three-year-olds even found a lower risk of some problems in children of such drinkers.
But experts were divided over whether the study was reassuring or could lull women into a false sense of security.
Government advice says pregnant women, or those trying to conceive, should avoid drinking alcohol.
But if they do choose to drink, they should drink no more than one or two units of alcohol once or twice a week and should not get drunk.
The relationship between sustained heavy drinking in pregnancy and health problems for the child is well-established.
In the most severe cases, it can cause miscarriage or stillbirth, or permanent damage to the growing foetus.
A small number of babies in the most severe cases can be born with "foetal alcohol syndrome", with symptoms including physical and mental developmental problems.
The University College London team asked mothers about how much alcohol they had drunk during pregnancy when their babies were nine months old.
Light drinking was classed as ranging from one drink every so often to two drinks per week, while moderate drinking was between three and six units per week or three to five per one occasion.
Heavy drinking was regarded as seven or more units per week or at least six per occasion.
While 63% of the mothers had abstained from alcohol completely during pregnancy, 29% had been light drinkers, 6% moderate and 2% heavy.
The researchers then went back when the children were three to ask about their behaviour and understanding.
The study, published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, found boys born to light drinkers were 40% less likely to have conduct problems and 30% less likely to be hyperactive than those whose mothers had abstained.
They also scored more highly on vocabulary tests and on identifying colours, shapes, letters and numbers.
Girls born to light drinkers were 30% less likely to have emotional problems than those born to abstainers, although the researchers say this could be due to family and social backgrounds.
Light drinkers were more likely to be better educated and from higher income households and were less likely to have smoked during pregnancy than abstainers.
Dr Yvonne Kelly, the epidemiologist who led the study, said: "Our research has found that light drinking by pregnant mothers does not increase the risk of behavioural problems and cognitive defects.
"The reasons behind these findings might in part be because light drinkers tend to be more socially advantaged than abstainers, rather than being due to the physical benefits of low level alcohol consumption seen, for example, in heart disease.
Dr Kelly added: "Our study's findings do raise questions as to whether the current push for policy to recommend complete abstinence during pregnancy is merited and suggest that further research needs to be done."
But Dr Vivienne Nathanson, head of science and ethics at the British Medical Association, said: "We are concerned that the findings from the UCL study may lull women into a false sense of security and give them the green light that there is no problem with drinking during pregnancy. This is not the case.
"So-called 'heavy' and 'moderate' drinking harm the unborn baby. Very light drinking may or may not.
"The BMA believes the simplest and safest advice is for women not to drink alcohol during pregnancy."
Patrick O'Brien, a spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said women should not set out to drink during pregnancy, but that they could be relaxed about the occasional drink.
"This is further evidence that pregnant women should not be worried about having a small amount of alcohol." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/4292918.stm | What does the ejection of the heckler say about the Labour Party?
Tony Blair has apologised to an 82-year-old party member who was thrown out of the party's annual conference for heckling foreign secretary Jack Straw.
Walter Wolfgang was led out by stewards after shouting "nonsense" during Mr Straw's speech defending Iraq policy.
The Prime Minister told BBC Breakfast: "I am really sorry about it, it shouldn't have happened."
Is heckling a sign of a healthy democracy? How should the Labour Party have dealt with the situation?
What does the ejection of an 82-year-old heckler say about the Labour Party?
I think it is fair to say that what caused Mr Wolfgang to heckle was not rudeness as some have suggested but because he is a man of good reason and found the usual New Labour spin far too frustrating and pointless to sit and listen to.
More than fifty years ago I used to "heckle" at far more robust political meetings than party conferences. The objective was to get thrown out. The most reliable meetings for success were the Communists. Heckling is not debate, it is interruption and disruptive. Nevertheless to manhandle a man of 82 is not on. I was only 20 and enjoyed it.
What concerned me the most was the use of anti-terror legislation to stop him returning to the conference initially. This is a worrying sign that the legislation will be used to achieve totally illegitimate ends, such as freedom of speech which has no hint of incitement. This aspect can be blamed solely on the government and not on the stewards, whose rough treatment of an 82-year-old was appalling.
This is simply media hype of the worst kind. A complete non-story. A rude man thrown out for shouting during speeches he doesn't agree with is not news. Certainly it doesn't warrant being the top news story on the BBC or giving this man a platform to air his views on national TV.
Blair's apology is meaningless. He only apologised because it was a PR disaster. Why has he not apologised to the younger man who was bundled out of the hall for the "crime" of trying to protect an elderly gentleman.
I can't wait to see the leader of the opposition being removed from the bench when he heckles Blair after Parliament resumes.
The aspect that I find most unbelievable in this whole sorry story is that only one person stood up for Mr Wolfgang, and then he was forcibly ejected also. Whatever happened to respect for elders, let alone free speech and the right to disagree with government policies. Very worrying indeed.
Does this mean that MPs sitting on the opposition benches who shout "nonsense" in Parliament are also going to be thrown out?
Use of anti-terror laws threatened against potential petrol strikers. Anti-terror laws used against political dissenters. It is obvious the government backs the use of these laws against anyone they don't like. The laws need repealing now, before we become a police state.
I don't see the point. Heckling is very annoying. It is not the right way to object or accept a point. The Prime Minister's apology could lead to subsequent poor comportment in the House of Commons - a great advocate of democracy.
Why did Jack Straw, who could see it unfolding in front of his eyes, not stop it?
Why did Jack Straw, who could see it unfolding in front of his eyes, not stop it? Either he didn't see anything wrong in it or he is not used to standing up against wrong.
The "mistake" for New Labour and the police was for all this to be caught on camera. If it hadn't been, would there have been such a rush to say sorry? Or would he still be in jail for up to however many days it is the Home Secretary now wants to be able to detain people under the new Terrorism Act.
Maybe there's a right time and place to heckle. If he doesn't agree with his party's policies then maybe he should think about joining another party.
It must have felt for the 82-year-old chap quite frightening, and to imagine that he may well have experienced the same thing during his young years as a citizen in Nazi Germany. Has this not proven at long last the type of society we are living in and what remains for the future?
Shouting 'nonsense, nonsense' while someone is trying to address a conference is not free speech, nor intelligent debate. It is just plain rude. What about the speaker's right to an uninterrupted hearing?
Since when has heckling been a crime? It has been a part of British politics all my life. To see an elderly man manhandled out of the conference, for doing what people have always done to politicians, is a horrifying 'big brother is watching you' scenario. George Orwell seems to have got it right.
If this is the way the government is going to use anti-terror legislation then there aught to be significant judicial oversight of those who enforce these laws and disciplinary proceedings for obvious misuse.
Holding an elderly gentleman under the Prevention of Terrorism Act for exercising free speech is now being called a 'mistake'. Nevertheless, the message is now out there - this could happen to you too if you express dissent. Why haven't we heard from the individual who gave the order? Where exactly do we stand? I applaud the media for making such a big issue out of this, long may they continue to do so.
I am Lithuania and under Soviet occupation speaking out like Mr Wolfgang did would've landed a person in the gulag in Siberia. Now we can speak our minds and as I am concerned that is what he did - voice his opinion.
The key issue here is that laws promoted as defending us from murderous fanatics are already being used to suppress anti-Government opinion. To look at this issue as being about anything else - the quality of stewarding, the rights and wrongs of heckling etc - is to dangerously miss the point.
I believe the phrase was 'tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime'. It's shame that the 'crime' turned out to be speaking out, and the 'cause', an 82-year-old, fed up with being lied to. Interestingly, one wonders whether the 'heavies' will face charges for criminally assaulting the old man. Still, going by some of the comments on here, the death of free speech will not be either mourned or missed. So, let's carry on with Blair's illegal war. Astonishing.
A man whose generation fought for freedom of speech, has to fight for it still, by law he should not have been treated in this manor!
The criticism of the stewards themselves rather misses the point. If they were acting on instructions these must have been given by the party and the leader, Mr Blair, is responsible for them. If they were not then the speaker, Mr Straw, should have told them to stop. Either way the Labour Party was clearly content to eject a harmless old man for shouting a few comments that they found painful. Not a pretty sight for a government that is seeking ever greater powers over all of us.
At this rate New Labour will simply abolish all other "dissenting" political parties, arrest those disagreeing for anti-state activities, and run the country for the benefit of the governing elite, much like East Germany, for example. Still glad you voted Labour?
It was totally right for Wolfgang to be ejected. He is typical of the old lefty image New Labour want to get rid of. He has no place in a modern party like ours and I only wish the stewards had chucked out the rest of them. Better still, we should send them off to Iraq to see how they would solve the situation.
Mr Blair's time would be better spent re-establishing democracy and free speech in the UK instead of Iraq. The day that open debate is considered to be the act of a "terrorist" is a sad day for us all.
He brought rough treatment upon himself by refusing to leave. If I'd been sitting by him I'd have wanted him to be removed as I would have liked to have heard the speech. Heckling is not debate, it is not free speech and at a televised conference I would consider it self-centred attention seeking, especially refusing to leave when asked knowing full well forcible removal would cause a scene. Mr Wolfgang can air his views in hundreds of ways, his free speech is well protected in the UK.
It is OK for MPs in parliament to heckle and cat-call their opponents during debates but not, it seems, for ministers and MPs to be heckled during speeches at stage managed conferences. The hypocrisy of these politicians is plain to see. They want their audience to behave like tame sheep applauding every statement, now where have we seen that before?
For the first time I felt a little frightened about the way our politics is going. There is more than a hint of the Orwellian vision creeping into this country.
So Mr Wolfgang is now considered to be a "terrorist" for speaking out against the government. I thought we were meant to be living in a democracy. Is it now going to be considered an act of terrorism to vote for the opposition?
I think the appalling treatment of Mr Wolfgang, and what it represents in terms of a supposedly democratic party, summarises the reasons why I - and many other long-term Labour supporters - no can longer vote Labour and are effectively now disenfranchised.
This shows the ultimate control the Labour Party have over dissenting voices. They have done this to their MPs, is it any surprise they do it to their loyal supporters?
Real heckling happens at Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park. Shouting words like 'nonsense' is simple conjecture no worse than you would find at a meeting of the local Parish Council. Democracy lives on the fact that a point of view can be challenged by anyone, one person, one vote and we are all equal. Yet, this episode shows some are more equal than others. Even more depressing is that the stewards must have been given their orders to behave so.
No, it wasn't a "mistake". The action taken against this man and his defender were the direct result of an authoritarian attitude that began with forbidding the sale of beef on the bone, and grew to new heights with imprisonment of pensioners for non-payment of small bills, and restraint of free speech through the terrorism act. Mealy mouthed apologies are not enough to right these wrongs.
Political leaders used to pride themselves on being able to deal with hecklers. It meant they could think on their feet without being tied to a script; and it meant they could deal with dissent with wit and good temper. Mr Wolfgang is to be congratulated on showing up the vacuity of this government.
Mr Wolfgang might not have felt that he had to heckle in the first place, if Labour had not refused to debate the war in Iraq, undoubtedly an important subject of current concern, at its conference.
Anti-terrorist legislation was rushed in on the back of massive public support. A majority of people are in favour of ID cards. After the London bombings, a majority thought the government had been too lenient on 'Preachers of Hate'. Attacks on liberty are popular (and therefore democratic). Unless people realize what they are advocating, the mistreatment of Walter Wolfgang will seem like small fry.
Surely the incident should be blamed more on bad stewarding than on the Labour Party.
The point here is that though heckling is awkward, there is no point in an audience if they can't express themselves. This action explains all that is wrong with this government and why we shouldn't trust their anti-terror agenda.
It would have been much less serious if they had not applied the Prevention of Terrorism Act. The latter has exposed precisely, albeit unwittingly, how the act could be implemented to suppress dissidents.
Whilst I am appalled at the treatment of this man, in my view it is a good thing that this misuse of terror laws happened before the forthcoming debate on strengthening them further. I am sure that there will now be a much more robust debate on the issue and I hope that if any new laws are required, these will be better as a result.
Timely evidence of laws passed for one reason being abused for another. What more of a warning does one need?
While heckling during a speech is pretty rude behaviour the response by stewards at the party conference was wholly disproportionate to the offence and reflective of the authoritarian attitude prevalent at the top of the Labour Party. Mr Wolfgang's age is entirely a red herring to the real debate about the rights of free speech. The stewards were taking their lead from the example set at the top, whatever Mr Blair says.
I think it's absolutely right that troublemakers are chucked out of the conference. We need to stop worrying about the old guard and push through the agenda of reform that Britain needs.
It is unbelievable how easy it is for the media (certain newspapers) to influence public opinion. I agree that the way Mr Wolfgang was ejected was disgraceful but also entirely down to the individuals who removed the gentleman. To say these actions are indicative of the Labour Party's policy on terrorism is ridiculous and entirely media created.
I am extremely grateful to Mr Wolfgang. If it were not for him the full extent of how dangerous and insidious the Terrorism Act is would not have been so publicly revealed. There needs to be a full inquiry into the application of this Act, and amendments need to be made to prevent this kind of blatant abuse.
Of course it should not have happened and a full apology has been given but if someone has something to say, they should ask to speak, which delegates are entitled to do, and give their viewpoint from the stage. There is nothing more annoying at any meeting, than people at the back, heckling and shouting. If you have something to say, get up and say it.
Would there have been such a clamour to apologise if the protester had not been an older man?
Would there have been such a clamour to apologise if the protester had not been an older man?. The Labour leadership is thinking about publicity again instead of addressing the issue of why they were being heckled. I find it worrying that if this is the reaction to a long standing Labour party member, what would the reaction be to a normal member of the public who has a grievance.
All of a sudden, the Tory leader election becomes more relevant. New Labour have made many gradual changes that separately amount to not much but this episode represents the sum of the whole - and its a whole lot more threatening than sleaze!
This suggests that the Terrorism Act can be invoked against anyone who disagrees with the authorities, and as such is very worrying. Ironic that someone who escaped Nazi Germany is a victim. Whatever will it be used for next? Whoever authorised the arrest clearly does not have the judgement necessary to do the job and should be sacked.
Seriously, this is a non-story. Ok, so a chap makes a nuisance of himself and some stewards overreact and handle the situation badly. Big deal, individuals make mistakes all the time. This is not an indication of the state of the Labour Party or of our democracy, and the only people who interpret it as such are those who already have an agenda of their own and are seizing on this to further their own ends. To my mind the media who sensationalise the trivia whilst failing to take a balanced and considered approach to the really important issues are the true threat to our democracy.
I cannot believe that an 82 year old gentleman has been roughly set upon by security staff and arrested under the terrorism act for simply disagreeing with the content of a speech. Why is it this government, and those organisations that operate in their name, seem to fervently punish those that pose no threat, or those who cannot evade or resist?
As a life long Labour supporter I am appalled at the response of Labour Party officials to the treatment of Walter Wolfgang. In essence they can't see the wood for the trees. There is no excuse for this type of behaviour and causes grave concern for the future of free speech in the country.
I scorned those who expressed worry over the anti-terrorism laws. I apologise, because I was obviously very wrong!
I can't believe what I'm reading. Yes, this is a form of democracy and, yes, we have freedom of speech, but what about law and order? Heckling in such a way during a speech (As opposed to a debate in somewhere such as the House of Commons) is just infantile and rude. Protesting is acceptable but only in an appropriate and civilized fashion!
Yet more proof, if needed, of this government's determination to clamp down on freedom of speech. First it was the ban on demonstrations within a mile of Parliament, now this. It's also very worrying that the police see the use of anti-terrorism laws as an excuse to restrain the most innocuous of citizens.
Mr Wolfgang has unwittingly exposed the ugly side of New Labour's control freaks. What chance does anyone in this country have if we continue to have a party, voted into power by a minority of the population, that allows no dissent from its own members?
If party members can't make their thoughts heard, what chance do the ordinary public have?
Mr Blair has blamed the stewards for their behaviour - what a cop out! How many high ranking ministers stood by and let it happen. Surely Mr Straw, as foreign secretary should have had the authority to stop the thugs from carrying out this despicable behaviour. This does, of course, assume that he had any sympathy for Mr Wolfgang. If party members can't make their thoughts heard, what chance do the ordinary public have?
Oh the irony: Jack Straw singing the praises of our bringing democracy to Iraq followed quickly by a clear illustration of fascism. A picture is worth 1000 words and this one showed loud and clear the hidden agenda behind the Anti-terrorism Act.
The curtain has been briefly pulled aside and we've been gifted an insight into the kind of world we'll be living in once ID cards are introduced. No need to worry if you haven't got anything to hide? Clearly there's everything to worry about from a government that's unbelievably sensitive about dissent.
This whole episode is a wake-up call. I for one have been shaken out of my complacency and now realise that my personal freedom is in jeopardy, not because of terrorists, but because of overzealous law makers.
Is Mr Blair sorry an 82-year-old was manhandled or sorry that anyone was ejected for daring to disagree with his policies? Unfortunately only the former I think.
Let's not get hysterical over this. Security guards were over-zealous and this left Tony Blair with egg on his face. Mr Wolfgang has received an apology and now he has a superb platform from which to air his views. From where I'm sitting that looks like freedom of speech.
I think this is outrageous behaviour. Firstly it shows what low regard the Labour Party has for its members. More seriously, it shows how the Terrorism Act can be seriously abused to attack anyone who criticises the government. There was no terrorism here.
If a heckler is detained on terrorism grounds because he disagreed with the government, then they better detain me as well. This is very, very troubling and indicative of what maybe to come. 1984.
Tony Blair may have apologised on TV but he said he felt he had no need to meet Mr Wolfgang. In my book, this is not an apology but a PR exercise. Mr Blair, shame on you.
I think the fact that the hall was more than half empty says a lot more about New Labour. Even its own members know that listening to Jack Straw speak will be a one-way exercise, and that there is no point raising a dissenting voice. That's why so many members have deserted the party since Blair became leader.
If you are not allowed to heckle at a party conference, then what is the point of having one?
If you are not allowed to heckle at a party conference, then what is the point of having one? I thought the point was to give party members an opportunity to voice their opinions and to question the people who work for us. We are the people who pay their wages or have they forgotten this?
You couldn't make this up. An 82-year-old refugee from Nazi Germany forcibly ejected from his party's conference after uttering a single word of dissent. The gratuitous use of anti-terrorism measures surely the icing on a particularly rancid cake. Goebbels would be proud.
If Straw thought that he had a valid point he would have confidently and humorously debated with the heckler. By having the man ejected he admitted that he knew he was talking indefensible rubbish. It reinforces my feeling that our democracy and freedom are being slowly dismantled with the excuse that it is 'for our own safety'.
This is a very embarrassing episode for any democratic party. Not only is the heckler a more vulnerable member of society, it proves that even the most tame dissent touches the nerves of a guilty government, who's unpopular decisions will not be absolved by even the most tailored rhetoric. Couple this with the story of the jailed council tax evader, and it is becoming clear that our pensioners are becoming more politicised than our youth.
One or two shouted remarks in disagreement - in exercise of freedom of expression - ought to be parried with a steely counter-argument, or at least a witty retort. Only persistent disturbance warrants ejection, regardless of the person's age or political affiliation. At which point was Mr Wolfgang ejected?
"Nonsense" and "that's rubbish, that's a lie" - this kind of heckling happens every day on the floor of the House of Commons. What justification is there for heavy handed treatment and, worryingly, detention under the Terrorism Act?
These are very disturbing pictures. Is it correct that anti-terrorism power was used by the police to hold a frail old man for merely expressing an opinion that happened not to be the one of the government? I am speechless. Where are we going to? How are we going to solve the real problems of terrorism? It is time that Labour backbenchers showed a bit of courage and challenge their leadership. And it is time for the Conservatives to wake up.
I can see the reason for removing him, although it was hardly done with any grace or tact, but the truly scary aspect is the use of anti-terrorism laws on him. This demonstrates perfectly and chillingly the anti-terrorism 'function creep'. After all, if the police can arrest someone without giving any reasons and perhaps be allowed to keep them in custody for three months without giving any reasons, why on earth would they ever bother to use any other, more appropriate but also more restrictive, power?
A televised apology is not sufficient. Blair should personally apologise to Walter Wolfgang, and to the party worker who queried the treatment he was receiving and then received the same treatment.
Another example of the abuse of power by this government. They always seek to avoid issues rather than confront them. Blair's apology is nothing more than a shameful attempt to spin the situation in his favour.
An inauspicious start to Mr Blair's campaign for more respect in society.
Some official should have stepped in and resolved the issue. Tony Blair should never have needed to apologise to anyone at the conference for having a different opinion unless any violence was carried out. It seems unless Tony Blair is on hand to take charge no one else has the sense to deal with issues at all. All officials that were there yesterday should be ashamed of themselves.
Yes, it was a big, big mistake and there should be a public apology. There is absolutely no point whatsoever in having a conference if all the attendees are in full agreement with the speakers. No point in preaching to the converted. Debate is healthy, maybe one or two MPs would serve their members better if they listened to them instead of talking at (not to) them. I would have more respect for a speaker who could hold his own against hecklers than one who insisted on having them ejected.
The most worrying thing in this story is that Mr Wolfgang was arrested under the Terrorism Act. This gives an idea of the future powers given to the police. You want to demonstrate in the street against the government? Get arrested for "terrorism".
What I find more disturbing than Mr Wolfgang being manhandled out of the conference in such an awful manner, is that he was detained under 'anti-terrorism' laws when he tried to re-enter the building.
I was shocked by what I saw. Many years ago I recall seeing film of Oswald Moseley's Blackshirt rallies, where dissenters were brutally ejected. I never thought I would see such similar scenes at a British Labour Party conference.
Disgraceful and heavy-handed but, to be fair, it probably says more about over-zealous security guards than the Labour party. The use of anti-terrorism laws to detain Mr Wolfgang afterwards raises far more serious questions.
It is very concerning that disagreeing with the government is now deemed to be an act of terrorism.
Insane. People have a right to protest. The best time of which is in the face of a politician or political group. It simply goes to show how this weak government brushes public views under the carpet. They are not open to the full debate on Iraq.
No, it is not acceptable for people to heckle. What happens if 20, 50, 200 people heckle? No one can hear anyone else and those who want to hear the speaker could not hear him. Regardless of age Mr Wolfgang should've remained quiet during the speech then he is free to voice his displeasure.
Throwing him out for a harmless heckle is bad enough - but using the Prevention of Terrorism Act to stop him getting back in is far more alarming. If we say "well done Walter" will we be had up for glorifying terrorism? Good grief - we really are on the slippery slope. The last possibility of me ever voting for this Labour Party went out the door with Mr Wolfgang. |
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-42322834 | A diamond-winged Cartier tiara commissioned by the Duchess of Roxburghe will be displayed at Dundee's V&A Museum of Design next year.
The tiara was created in 1935, the year of Mary Crewe-Milnes' marriage to the 9th Duke of Roxburghe.
The Valkyrie tiara comprises more than 2,500 cushion-shaped, single-cut, circular-cut and rose-cut diamonds, set in a gold and silver frame.
It will be the first time it has been displayed in public.
Inspired by the winged helmets worn by the heroines of Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, the tiara is the last of its type ever made by Cartier.
The pair of "en tremblant"' wings were constructed using wire-coiled springs so that they move slightly when worn.
The tiara belongs to a private collector, and will be loaned to V&A Dundee, following arrangements negotiated through Sotheby's.
It will be displayed in a section of the museum's Scottish Design Galleries.
The galleries' lead curator Joanna Norman said: "This tiara is a stunning example of design being directly influenced by the person who commissioned it.
"In 1935 the Duchess of Roxburghe had just married into a Scottish dynasty.
"When she asked Cartier to make one last Valkyrie tiara, she was commissioning a piece of exquisite craftsmanship and unexpected design, inspired by the fashions of her childhood."
The fashion for Valkyrie tiaras originated on the stage before being rapidly adopted by fashionable aristocrats at the start of the 20th Century.
The duchess's fondness for the style was sparked by seeing winged tiaras worn at balls and parties as a child.
The £80.1m museum is due to open in the second half of 2018.
The Scottish Design Galleries will feature about 300 objects, including items from a 15th Century book of illuminated manuscripts to the latest in computer gaming technology. |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-25676858 | Thousands of people have signed an online petition calling for World War I nurse Edith Cavell to be commemorated on a new £2 coin.
Cavell helped more than 200 allied soldiers escape from occupied Belgium but was shot by a German firing squad.
The petition was started after it was announced that former war secretary Lord Kitchener would feature on a coin.
A Royal Mint spokeswoman said future designs would include other figures connected with the war.
But she said she could not confirm or deny whether Cavell would be among them.
Sioned-Mair Richards, 55, who started the petition, said she was surprised and delighted at the support for it.
"It's really struck a chord with people," she said.
Ms Richards, a Labour member of Sheffield City Council and a former mayor of Carmarthen, said she had admired Cavell since she was a girl.
"Lord Kitchener represents all that I have always loathed about the First World War - the jingoism, the sheer waste of men, the 'lions led by donkeys' mentality," she said.
"And then I thought of Edith Cavell, a heroine of my early childhood. The nurse who was executed for giving succour to all wounded soldiers regardless of nationality.
"The woman who is celebrated for saving the lives of soldiers in Brussels from all sides without distinction."
Cavell, a vicar's daughter, was born at Swardeston, near Norwich, in 1865.
Thousands of people lined the city's streets for her funeral procession before she was buried at Norwich Cathedral.
The Royal Mint said the Kitchener coin, announced last week, would not be the only one to commemorate the centenary of World War I.
"Over the course of the next four years, we will announce further circulating and non-circulating coins which will mark the centenary of the journey from outbreak to armistice," a spokeswoman said.
"These coins will tell the stories of the armed forces, individuals, key battles and cultural and technological developments of that period, before finishing with a poignant reflection on the armistice and the ongoing legacy of the war."
She said each would go through a "rigorous" planning and design selection process governed by an independent panel. |